HORSE MANGO

(Mangifera foetida)

A tree of horse mango

Family: Anacardiaceae

Synonyms: Mangifera horsefieldii

Other names:  Bachang  

Horse mango is believed to be a native of Peninsular Thailand, Sumatra and Borneo in South East Asia.  It occurs wild in forests and common lands.  It is also widely cultivated in many parts of the South East Asia

Description:

A large evergreen tree up to 30-35 m tall, straight bole without buttresses, bark light brown to dark grayish-brown, shallowly fissured with broad flat ridges, containing irritant whitish sap turning black on exposure: crown dense, foliage dark green, branches massive.

Leaves elliptic-oblong to broadly elliptic, sometimes oblanceolate, 15-40 cm x 9-15 cm, stiffly coriaceous, dark green, above, clear green below, apex sub-acute, sometimes rounded or slightly emarginate, base cuneate or attenuate, more or less bullate between the nerves; petiole 1.5-8 cm, shout, very swollen at the base.

Panicles sub terminal, upright, pyramidal, 10-40 cm long, sparsely branched, rather densely flowered, deep red to copper red; flower 5-merous, scentless; sepals obovate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm long; petals narrowly lanceolate, 6-9 mm x 1.5-2.5 mm, pale reddish-pink at the base, pale yellow towards the apex, reflexed; stamens 5, 1(-2) fertile, filament ca. 8 mm long, pinkish-purple, anthers dark violet, other ones smaller, filaments connate at the base; ovary subglobose, yellow, style excentric, white, 6-7 mm long;

Fruit variable in size and shape, an obliquely ovoid-oblong or almost globose drupe, 9-14(-16) cm x 7-12 cm, dirty dark olive-green or yellowish-green, smooth, dull, with brown lenticels, nose reduced to a point or slightly prominent, rarely prominent, skin ca. 5mm thick; flesh pale orange yellow or yellow, fibrous, juicy, with strong smell and taste of turpentine at its full extent. Stone plump, ca. 6 cm x 5 cm x 3 cm, coarsely fibrous; seed monoembryonic.

Utilization:

The fruits are eaten fresh but have to bee peeled thick as the bark contain a substance which irritates skin.   But still horse mango is a tasty fruit, in spite of its turpentine smell. But it is not valued as much as a mango as a table fruit.  

Nutritive value:  The pulp of horse mago fruits which constitutes 65% of total weight, contains water 72.5%, protein 1.4%, carbohydrates 25.4 % and 21 mg calcium 15 mg phosphorus, 0.03 mg thiamine, 0.218 mg B-carotene equivalent and 56 mg vitamin C per 100 g of pulp.

            Unripe fruit are used in vegetable salads and in a sour pickle. In Borneo, especially in East Kalimantan, the fruit commonly replaces tamarind as an acid ingredient in the preparation of sambal. In Malaysia it is used to make chutneys as well as pickles.

The leaves are said to be antipyretic and the seeds are used against trichophytosis, scabies and eczema.

Cultivation:

Horse mango trees occur chiefly in primary lowland forests in the wet tropics. They are adapted to areas with abundant rainfall, evenly distributed over the year, and can be seen up to elevations above 1000m.

            Propagation is by seed. The seedlings require much moisture and light shade. They tolerate much shade but later on grow also well in full light.  Selected plants can also be propagated by modified Forkert budding with buds of non-petioled wood on one year old rootstocks, during the dry season.  Trees should be planted in orchards at a spacing of 15 m.

Trunk borers (Rhytidodera simulans, a longicorn beetle) may damage and kill branches, but the tree retains its viability. The attacks of the bark by Arbela are more superficial. The fruit is often damaged by the mango weevil, Cryptorrhynchus magiferae, whose larvae feed in the flesh.

            The fruits are harvested during the rainy season, in West Java from October to December.