Preliminary field adaptation and fruit characterization of Mangifera species in Florida

Abstract

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden maintains a living collection of Mangifera species collected in Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo, Hawaii, Java, Peninsular Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Sumatra and Thailand. This collection is composed of single tree accessions planted at the Williams Grove Genetic facility located in Homestead, Florida, USA. Planting began in 2004 and there are currently 55 accessions of Mangifera species; the non-indica Mangifera constitute up to 25 species, including M. altissima, M. applanata, M. caesia, M. casturi, M. fetida, M. griffithii, M. lalijiwa, M. langong, M. laurina, M. magnifica, M. odorata, M. pajang, M. pentandra, M. quadrifida, M. rubropetala, M. torquenda and M. zeylanica. The current study begins to build base-line information for these species that can be used for the determination of taxonomic relationships between the species and for the breeding and improvement of both these species and the mango. M. applanata, M. casturi, M. lalijiwa, M. odorata, M. quadrifida, M. rubropetala, M. zeylanica. M. sp. ‘Rampagni’, M. sp. ‘Tenom’, M. sp. ‘JD1 and M. sp. ‘JD5’ were characterized in the current study. Only fruit characters are included in this study and all data were derived from measurements taken on the trees growing in Florida.