Mango is a large, evergreen tree with a dark green, umbrella-shaped, spreading crown; it can grow from 10 - 45 metres tall.
The long bole can be 60 - 120cm in diameter.
The tree has a deep, tap-root system.
The mango is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the world, having been grown in India 4,000 years ago.
From there its cultivation has spread and it is now grown extensively around the world in tropical regions, and the frost-free subtropics, for its edible fruit.

Known Hazards

In sensitive individuals, ingestion of the fruit or skin contact with the juice may cause a rash like that of poison ivy.

Habitat

A mid-canopy tree in humid tropical forests, usually growing in the more open, secondary formations, at elevations usually below 500 metres, but occasionally ascending to 1,700 metres.

Cultivation Status

Cultivated, Wild

Cultivation Details

The optimal climate for growing mango ranges from the monsoon tropics to the frost-free subtropics, with a marked dry, or cool, season of at least three months to promote flowering.
It succeeds at any elevation up to about 1,200 metres, but for commercial purposes 600 metres is the maximum elevation.
It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 24 - 30°c, but can tolerate 8 - 48°c.
When dormant, the plant can survive short-lived temperatures down to about -1°c, but young growth can be severely damaged at 0°c.
It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 600 - 1,500mm, but tolerates 300 - 2,600mm.
The dry season of equatorial regions is too unreliable for commercial cultivation.
Whilst trees generally grow best in moderately dry climates, some cultivars can thrive and produce even under rainforest conditions.
Prefers a sunny position.
Plants are not too fussy over soil, not needing very fertile conditions.
However, they crop better in a rich, well-drained soil, whilst very poor soil, or shallow land, is unsuitable.
A pH in the range 6 - 7 is ideal.
Grows best in areas sheltered from strong, drying winds.
Established plants are drought tolerant, and can also withstand occasional inundation of the soil.
Trees produce a taproot up to 5 metres deep.

Plants take 5 - 8 years from seed before they begin to fruit.
Grafted plants commence bearing in 3 - 5 years.
Individual trees often flower irregularly and may only produce one good crop every 3 - 4 year; some trees do not flower for periods of 10 - 20 years, sometimes even longer.
Yields increase up to the 20th year, decline after the 40th year and the tree may live for 100 years or more.
Flowering starts at the beginning of the rainy season and fruits ripen at the end of the rainy season.
Most varieties are self-fertile, but produce larger crops when cross-pollinated.
Yields of about 500 fruits per tree are average in 'on' years.
A plantation of full-grown trees may produce 10 - 30 tonnes per hectare of fruit each year. Average yields are, however, often quite low with 6 tonnes being achieved in the Philippines, 3.5 tonnes in Peninsular Malaysia and 2.3 tonnes in Thailand.
A very variable plant, there are many named varieties.
Some forms of the mango produce polyembryonic seeds (more than one seedling is produced from each seed) - these forms produce a tree genetically identical to the parent.

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw or cooked. One of the most popular fruits in the world, it is commonly eaten raw, is juiced and can also be prepared in a variety of ways such as in chutneys, jams, pickles etc.
The dried, unripe fruit is ground into a powder and used as a flavouring in Indian cuisine.
They are an ingredient of the spice mixture chat masala.
A variable fruit, ranging in colour from green through orange and yellow to red, it can be anything from 50g to 1.5kg in weight.
The fruit is usually 8 - 12cm long, but can be up to 30cm.
The fruit contains about 15% sugars, 0.5% protein and significant amounts of vitamins A, B and C.
The seeds are used in the preparation of dodol, or pudding.
A starch and an edible fat can be obtained from them.
The kernels are important as a famine food in India, but the astringency has to be removed by boiling, roasting and soaking them for a long time.
Flowers
Young leaves
Cooked as a vegetable.

Medicinal

The leaves are astringent and odontalgic.
An infusion is drunk to reduce blood pressure and as a treatment for conditions such as angina, asthma, coughs and diabetes.
Externally, the leaves are used in a convalescent bath.
A mouthwash made from the leaves is effective in hardening the gums and helping to treat dental problems.
The leaves are used to treat skin irritations.
The charred and pulverized leaves are used to make a plaster for removing warts and also act as a styptic.
The seed is astringent, antidiarrhoeal; anthelmintic when roasted.
It is used to treat stubborn colds and coughs, obstinate diarrhoea and bleeding piles.
The pulverised seed is made into a sweetened tea and drunk, or taken as powders, for treating dysentery.
The seeds are ground up and used to treat scorpion stings.
The bark is astringent, homeostatic and antirheumatic.
Used in the treatment of haemorrhage, diarrhoea and throat problems.
When incised, the bark yields an oleoresin which is stimulant, sudorific and antisyphilitic.
The stem is astringent. It is used to treat diarrhoea and to remedy stomach-ache.
The roots are diuretic.
The flowers are aphrodisiac.
The fruit is antiscorbutic and antidysenteric.

Agroforestry Uses

The bark and the leaves are the source of a yellowish-brown dye used for silk.
The flowers are used to repel mosquitoes.
The slender branches are used as toothbrushes to treat toothache.
Heartwood is pale yellowish-brown to reddish-brown, darkening on exposure, not clearly demarcated from the pale yellowish-brown sapwood. Grain somewhat wavy, texture moderately coarse; freshly cut wood is scentless. The wood is used for many purposes, including indoor construction, meat-chopping blocks, furniture, carpentry, flooring, boxes, crates and boat building (canoes and dugouts).
The wood is a source of 'machang' timber.
Corewood can be used for decorative veneer production.
With a calorific value of 4200 kcal/kg, the wood makes excellent charcoal and firewood.

Other Uses

None Recorded

Propagation

Seed - best sown as soon as ripe.
Wash the seed, dry in shade and sow about 5cm deep with the convex side up.
Germination takes about 18 days if the seed is peeled first, or 30 days if it is not.
Give the seedlings some shade as they grow.
Plants that are raised in nursery beds can be transplanted without much difficulty before the taproot has developed to any great extent.
However, seedlings raised in baskets or containers are preferable.
Grafting onto a polyembryonic stock.