Growers and importers worldwide have embraced the cultivar for its excellent productivity and disease resistance, shelf life, transportability, size, and appealing color. The current world market is dominated by the cultivar 'Tommy Atkins', a seedling of 'Haden' that first fruited in 1940 in southern Florida and was initially rejected commercially by Florida researchers. Asian mangoes are resistant to anthracnose. For example, Indian cultivars such as 'Julie,' a prolific cultivar in Jamaica, require annual fungicide treatments to escape the lethal fungal disease anthracnose in Florida. A common monoembryonic cultivar is 'Alphonso', an important export product, considered "the king of mangoes." Ĭultivars that excel in one climate may fail elsewhere. Many desired cultivars are monoembryonic and must be propagated by grafting, or they do not breed true. In mango orchards, several cultivars are often grown to improve pollination. There are many hundreds of named mango cultivars. Nevertheless, the existence of two distinct genetic populations also identified by the study indicates that the domestication of the mango is more complex than previously assumed and would at least indicate multiple domestication events in Southeast Asia and South Asia. However, the authors also cautioned that the diversity in Southeast Asian mangoes might be the result of other reasons (like interspecific hybridization with other Mangifera species native to the Malesian ecoregion). Instead, it identified a higher unique genetic diversity in Southeast Asian cultivars than in Indian cultivars, indicating that mangoes may have originally been domesticated first in Southeast Asia before being introduced to South Asia. It was previously believed that mangoes originated from a single domestication event in South Asia before being spread to Southeast Asia, but a 2019 study found no evidence of a center of diversity in India. The Indian group is characterized by having monoembryonic fruits, while polyembryonic fruits characterize the Southeast Asian group. įrom their center of origin, mangoes diverged into two genetically distinct populations: the subtropical Indian group and the tropical Southeast Asian group. The mango is considered an evolutionary anachronism, whereby seed dispersal was once accomplished by a now- extinct evolutionary forager, such as a megafauna mammal. Mangoes originated from the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. 'Langra', a typical "Indian type" monoembryonic mango cultivar Mango trees grow readily from seeds, with germination success highest when seeds are obtained from mature fruits. Mangoes have recalcitrant seeds which do not survive freezing and drying. Inside the pit 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) thick is a thin lining covering a single seed, 4–7 cm (1.6–2.8 in) long. Ripe intact mangoes give off a distinctive resinous, sweet smell. The skin is leather-like, waxy, smooth, and fragrant, with colors ranging from green to yellow, yellow-orange, yellow-red, or blushed with various shades of red, purple, pink, or yellow when fully ripe. The fruits may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5–25 centimetres (2–10 in) in length and from 140 grams (5 oz) to 2 kilograms (5 lb) in weight per individual fruit. The fruit has a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface and does not separate easily from the pulp. Depending on the cultivar, fruits are variously yellow, orange, red, or green. The ripe fruit varies according to cultivar in size, shape, color, sweetness, and eating quality. The fruit takes four to five months from flowering to ripening. Over 500 varieties of mangoes are known, many of which ripen in summer, while some give a double crop. The flowers are produced in terminal panicles 10–40 cm (4– 15 + 1⁄ 2 in) long each flower is small and white with five petals 5–10 millimetres ( 3⁄ 16– 3⁄ 8 in) long, with a mild, sweet fragrance. The leaves are evergreen, alternate, simple, 15–35 centimetres (6–14 inches) long, and 6–16 cm ( 2 + 1⁄ 2– 6 + 1⁄ 2 in) broad when the leaves are young they are orange-pink, rapidly changing to a dark, glossy red, then dark green as they mature. In deep soil, the taproot descends to a depth of 6 m (20 ft), with profuse, wide-spreading feeder roots and anchor roots penetrating deeply into the soil. The trees are long-lived, as some specimens still fruit after 300 years. Mango trees grow to 30–40 metres (98–131 feet) tall, with a crown radius of 10–15 m (33–49 ft). The scientific name, Mangifera indica, refers to a plant bearing mangoes in India. The English word mango (plural "mangoes" or "mangos") originated in the 16th century from the Portuguese word, manga, from the Malay mangga, and ultimately from the Tamil man ("mango tree") + kay ("fruit").
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