Zhenyuan Mangoes

Zhenyuan Mangoes

　　Mango is one of the most well-known tropical fruits, also called man guo, mang guo, men guo, mi wang, wang guo, an bo luo guo, among other names. Its flesh is delicate and its flavor unique, making it deeply loved by people and earning it the reputation of the “King of Tropical Fruits.”

Mango is a large, evergreen tropical tree belonging to the genus Mangifera in the Anacardiaceae family, growing from 9 to 27 meters tall. The leaves are lanceolate, glossy dark green, the flowers small and numerous, red or yellow, arranged in terminal panicles. The tree can live for several hundred years. Originally native to India and Malaysia, India has the longest cultivation history and the highest yield, accounting for 80% of the world's production. The name "mango" originates from the Tamil language of southern India. The fruit of wild mango trees is inedible. Indians were the first to discover this tree and cultivate it into the edible mango we know today. They also used it to provide shade from the tropical sun, a practice that dates back over 4,000 years. Legend has it that a devout follower once offered his mango grove to Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) so he could rest in its shade. To this day, the leaves, flowers, and fruits of the mango tree can be seen in the patterns of Buddhist and Hindu temples across India. Hindus believe that the five petals of the mango flower represent the five arrows of the god of love, Kamadeva, and use the mango to worship the goddess Saraswati. Between 1556 and 1605, Mughal Emperor Akbar had an orchard of 100,000 mango trees near Delhi. Such a large-scale mango plantation was rare in the world at that time. It is now widely believed that the first person to introduce the mango outside of India was the Chinese Tang Dynasty monk Xuanzang, who recorded in *Great Tang Records of the Western Regions* that “the an bo luo guo is cherished throughout the world.” From there, it spread to Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines, then to Mediterranean coastal nations, and only reached Brazil, the West Indies, and Florida in the United States after the 18th century. Today, these regions all have vast mango plantations.

The size, shape, color, fiber content, and seed size of the fruit are the main criteria for distinguishing mango varieties. However, there are many different mango varieties and strains. In the past, most were propagated through seedlings, resulting in numerous natural hybrids, while new varieties continue to be developed artificially. For example, researchers at the University of the Philippines have made initial progress in using genetic methods to cultivate “seedless” mangoes. As a result, there are now about 1,000 mango varieties worldwide, and there has never been a complete classification system for them. Depending on the variety, mangoes can weigh several kilograms at the largest, or be as small as a plum at the smallest. Shapes vary — round, oval, heart-shaped, kidney-shaped, elongated, plump, and more. The skin color ranges from green, lime, yellow, to red. The flesh may be yellow, green, or orange. Flavors range from sour, sweet, mildly sweet, to tangy-sweet.