Mangosteen Trees

How do we recognize a mangosteen tree? More than knowing how a mangosteen fruit looks like and tastes like, we should also be aware of the actual tree that produces it.

Although a slow-grower, the mangosteen tree is erect, attaining twenty to eighty-two feet (or six to twenty-five meters) in height. It has a crown shaped like a pyramid. Its bark is dark in color and flaking while the inner bark contains yellow, gummy, bitter latex. The short-stalked yellowish-green leaves of the tree are oval or elliptic, thick, leathery, slightly glossy, and portion three to ten inches (or nine to twenty-five centimeters) long and two to four inches (or 4.5 to ten centimeters) wide. New growing leaves are rosy.

The Food Pyramid

Mangosteen flowers are fleshy. They portion 1 1/2 to 2 inches (four to five centmeters) wide. In the same tree, flowers may be either male or both male and female (hermaphrodite). The previous are thick with fleshy petals, yellowish-red inside, green with red spots on the outside, in groups of three to nine, and have many stames. The hermaphrodite flowers, on the other hand, are yellowish-green, blooms individually or in pairs, and fall off easily.

The mangosteen tree is best cultivated in the excellent soil and climate. Efforts have been made to create mangosteen orchards. However, because of their weird improvement patterns and unpredictable harvest times, these trees are then mostly found along rivers banks or lakes, as their roots need constant moisture.

Mangosteen trees take many years to furnish fruit after planting. The tree will take about ten years or more to start bearing fruits from the time of planting. Unlike a common tropical fruit tree, the mangosteen tree will only reach the height of ten to twenty feet in the first few years of its life. However, as a tree matures to its full growth, it can furnish approximately 500 mangosteen fruits per harvest.

Mangosteen Trees