Mangifera laurina (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Mangifera laurina Blume

Protologue: M. laurina : Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. 1: 195 (1850).

M. pentandra : Fl. Brit. Ind. 2: 14 (1876).

Family: Anacardiaceae

Chromosome number: 2n= 40

• M. laurina : Mangifera longipes Griffith (1854), Mangifera sumatrana Miq. (1859), Mangifera parih Miq. (1859).

• M. pentandra : Mangifera lanceolata Ridley (1911).

• M. laurina : Indonesia: mangga pari (Sundanese, West Java), pelem kecik (Javanese, East Java), empelem (Malay, Kalimantan, Sumatra)
• Malaysia: mempelam, emplam (Malay, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, Sarawak), mangga ayer (Malay, Sabah)
• Philippines: apali
• Burma: thayet-thee-nee
• Thailand: mamuang kaleng, mamuang khee kwaang (peninsula)
• Vietnam: cây nui, xoái nui.

• M. pentandra : no generally used vernacular names, often called "mangga" or "pauh" which refers also to M. indica
• Malaysia: mangga bemban, pauh asal, pauh damar (Peninsular)
• Thailand: mamuang paa (central).

-M. laurina is undoubtedly wild throughout the Malesian region, from peninsular Thailand to New Guinea, in lowland tropical rain forest. It was probably brought into cultivation long before the introduction of Mangifera indica L. in the region. In most parts of Borneo it is still widely cultivated, but it is now losing ground in Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Java, since the fruit is inferior to that of M. indica cultivars.

-M. pentandra is mainly known in cultivation in old orchards in peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and the Anambas Islands. Perhaps it occurs wild in northern Peninsular Malaysia.

The fruit of both species has only a little bit of flesh which liquidifies at maturity, so that it can be sucked out. More often the fruit is harvested immature, sliced and served in fruit salads with a spicy sauce ("rujak").

• M. laurina : tree, 20-30(-35) m tall, trunk 40-90(-150) cm in diameter, occasionally with short thick buttresses. Leaves elliptic-lanceolate to lanceolate, 6-24 cm × 2-6 cm, chartaceous, petiole slender, 2-5(-8) cm long. Inflorescences panicles, subterminal, pyramidal, 10-40 cm long, open, laxly spreading, glabrous or sub-puberulous, loosely flowered; flowers whitish-green to pale yellow, long-pedicelled, small, fragrant; calyx 5-lobed, petals 5, narrow; stamens 5, only 1 fertile. Fruit a drupe, exactly like a small mango, 6-10 cm × 4-5 cm, pale yellow at maturity; flesh yellow, soft, fibrous, juicy. Stone 4.5-5.5 cm × 2-3 cm × 1.3-1.6 cm; seed polyembryonic. By some authors (e.g. in Flora Malesiana) M. laurina is merged into M. indica ; tree habit and leaves are very similar, so that M. laurina is often mistaken for M. indica . Its glabrous or sub-puberulous, laxly spreading, loosely flowered inflorescences are discriminative. Flowering can take place after any short dry spell. In South Kalimantan (Kandangan) a form with more elongated, narrower fruits is known as "asem buluh", meaning "bamboo mango". In East Kalimantan, M. laurina in village plantings in the lakes area sometimes crosses with the wild M. gedebe Miq. of which there are important populations. The fruit shows intermediate characters, having notably labyrinthine seed.

• M. pentandra : tree, up to 28 m tall, trunk 90 cm in diameter, occasionally with small buttresses. Leaves oblong to elliptic (11-)16-20(-25)cm × (3.5-)6-9(-15)cm, coriaceous, venation distinct on both surfaces, densely reticulate; leaves reddening when drying; petiole 1.5-3.5(-6)cm long. Inflorescences pyramidal panicles, 15-30 cm long, densely pubescent; flowers yellowish to cream-white, calyx 5-lobed, petals 5, stamens 5, 3-5 fertile. Fruit a drupe, like a small mango, 7-10 cm × 4-5 cm, yellowish-green; flesh orange, soft and watery, with few fibres, rather sweet. Stone 4-5 cm × 3-3.5 cm × 1.7-2 cm, with thick woody endocarp which is rather deeply grooved. M. pentandra much resembles M. indica . Its densely hairy panicles and its flowers with 3-5 fertile stamens are discriminative. The rate of fruit set is characteristically high.

Both species are at home in fairly wet tropical lowlands, M. laurina also at elevations above 300 m.

M. laurina is a suitable rootstock for cultivars of M. indica grown on periodically inundated river banks in Kalimantan. The loose glabrous inflorescences show no sign of anthracnose ( Colletotrichum gloeosporioides ), where those of the mango are severely damaged.

Both species might contribute to the improvement of M. indica through breeding programmes. Crossing M. laurina 's resistance to anthracnose and the heavy fruit set of M. pentandra into M. indica would be a major breakthrough. Heavy fruit set may result from more intensive pollination in species with 3-5 fertile stamens instead of a single one. Five-stamen close relatives of M. indica include Mangifera caloneura Kurz and Mangifera cochinchinensis Engl., which occur in mainland South-East Asia.

It is to be expected that both species will continue to lose ground to the common mango. Their main role may lie in the hybridization of the mango.

• Ding Hou, 1978. Anacardiaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (Editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 8. pp. 426-428.
• Mukherjee, S.K., 1949. A monograph of the genus Mangifera L. Lloydia 12: 73-136.
• Fairchild, D., 1948. The mango relatives of Cochinchina; those with five-stamen flowers. Florida State Horticultural Society 61: 250-255.

J.M. Bompard