Mangifera indica L.

Taxonomy: Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Sapindales > Anacardiaceae > Mangifera > M. indica

Description: Evergreen trees, to 30 m high, bark 2-2.5 cm, dark grey, rough with vertical fissures; blaze yellow; exudation yellowish, gummy. Leaves simple, alternate, clustered at the tips of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 10-75 mm long, stout, glabrous, pulvinate; lamina 9.2-40 x 2.5-8 cm, elliptic, elliptic-lanceolate, linear-oblong, base attenuate or acute, apex acuminate, acute or obtusely acute, margin entire, glabrous, shiny, coriaceous; lateral nerves 14-28 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers polygamous, yellowish-green, in terminal panicles; pedicels jointed; bract deciduous; calyx 4-5 partite, ovate, imbricate, hairy without, cauducous; petals 4-5, oblong-obovate, subequal, nerves at base gland crested, free or adnate to the disc; disc fleshy, cupular, 4-5 lobed; stamens 4-5, inserted inside or on the disc, fertile stamens 1 or 2; filaments free, glabrous; staminodes gland-tipped; ovary sessile, superior, oblique, 1-celled, ovule pendulous; style lateral; stigma simple. Fruit a drupe, 5-15 cm long, oblong-reniform, compressed, yellowish-red, mesocarp fleshy, endocarp fibrous; seed subreniform.

Flowering and fruiting: January-May

Uses: Ripe fruit is eaten with much relish. Some varieties have sweeter taste also eaten when unripe. Unripe fruits are used to prepare pickles, unripe mango-chutney with pudina is common recipe. Mishing and other tribe prepare curry with sliced unripe mango and fishes. The wood is also valuable. Villagers use to predict monsoon by observing the flowering pattern of mango plant. medicinally used in Ayurveda, Folk medicine, Homoeopathy, Folk medicine, Sowa-Rigpa, Unani and Siddha

Cultivation: Cultivated as well as wild

References

http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org

https://indiabiodiversity.org