Bouea macrophylla
| Bouea macrophylla | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Immature Bouea macrophylla in a basket | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Sapindales |
| Family: | Anacardiaceae |
| Genus: | Bouea |
| Species: | B. macrophylla |
| Binomial name | |
| Bouea macrophylla Griffith | |
Bouea macrophylla, commonly known as maprang and gandaria in English, is a species of flowering plant native to Southeast Asia. The tree belongs to the Anacardiaceae family which also includes mango and cashew.
Description
The evergreen tree grows to heights of 25 meters. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic in shape (see: Leaf shape), and range from 13 to 45 cm (5 to 17 inches) long and from 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3 inches) wide.
The fruit (resembling a mango) are green in colour and mature to an orange/yellow, with the seed being pink. They grow to roughly 2 to 5 cm (0.7 to 1.9 inches) in diameter. The entire fruit, including its skin is edible. The fruit range from sweet to sour in flavour, and have a light smell of turpentine.
Flowering and fruiting times differ for Thailand and Indonesia.
- Thailand : flowers in November to December, and fruit appears from April to May.
- Indonesia : flowers in June to November, and fruit appears from March to June.
Distribution
The tree is native to Malaysia, West Java, Burma and North Sumatra. It is also found in Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, and Malaysia, where it is commercially grown.
Uses
Consumption
Both the leaves and fruit from the tree can be eaten. The leaves can be eaten raw when they are still young, and can be used in salads. While the seed is edible, the endosperm is generally bitter. Fruit can be eaten raw, or made into dishes such as pickle, compote, or sambal. Unripened fruit can be used to make rojak and asinan.[1]
Functional
The entire tree can be used as an ornamental fruit bearing shade tree due to its dense foliage.[2]
Other names
Bouea macrophylla is commonly known in English as the "marian plum", "gandaria", and "plum mango". It is also known in Thai as ma praang (มะปราง) and ma-yong; in Indonesian as ramania and gandaria; in Burmese as mayan-thee (မရမ်းသီး); and in Vietnamese as thanh trà
In Malay, the tree is known as kundang, rembunia, and setar, and is the origin of the toponym Alor Setar (with alor meaning "small stream").
In 2015 a major retailer introduced the fruit to the British public under the name plango, apparently a portmanteau word for "plum" and "mango".[3] At the time the announcements noted the resemblance of the fruit to plums and mangoes, and some of the local press deliberately or naively announced that the fruit was a cross between a plum and a mango,[4] which is not botanically plausible without genetic engineering, given that plums and mangoes are not even in the same family; they are in fact members of the Rosaceae and Anacardiaceae respectively.
References
- ↑ "West Australian Nut and Tree Crops Association". WANATCA Yearbook (ISSN 0312-8997), Vol. 20, p. 42 (1996).
- ↑ TopTropicals plant catalog
- ↑ Fresh Plaza announcement
- ↑ Plango press announcement
Sources
Bouea macrophylla taxonomy
Species with potential for commercial development
Mansfeld database
AgroForestryTree Database