Botany, Morphology and Ecology of Mango

                                                         By

Farooq khalid (Philosopher in Chemistry)

 Mangifera Indica is considered a long-lived evergreen herbal tree having a height of 15-30m. Most cultivated trees are between 3 and 10m in height when they are fully mature. Moreover, height depends on the amount and variety of punting. Non-cultivated and seedling trees have often reached the height of 15m. Besides, under favourable conditions in forest situations, they can reach up to 30m in height.

Mangifera Indica has a dome shape with dense foliage and tropically carries many branches from the stout trunk. Leaves of Mangifera Indica appear reddish and produce a sweet odour on crush. When it ripes, the Fruit of Mangifera Indica has a single seed with yellowish pulp and thick yellow to reddish skin.

Mangifera Indica consists of long tap root which branches just below the ground level and has 2 or 4 major anchoring taproots that can reach up to 6m down to the water table. From the surface, down to 1m, the finer roots are present. With moisture distribution in soil, the distribution of finer roots changes seasonally. The flowering season of Mangifera Indica comes in the last months of every year. 4 to 6 weeks are required for the flowering period having night temperatures that can vary from 8 degrees to 5 degrees Celsius and day temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius. During December and April, the main flowering has been observed in occurred in Hawaii.

Mango is not susceptible to wide environmental conditions. Generally, mango is cultivated in a very hot, hot-arid and humid to cool environment. The mango tree grows well in areas with a temperature of 45 degrees Celsius. However, the optimum range of temperature for proper growth and production is 27-36 degrees Celsius. The Mango plant prefers sunny conditions.

Although, mangoes are drought resistant but do not grow properly in case of a deficiency of water. Mango requires fertile soil along with essential nutrients. Excellent growth of mango tree has been observed, when PH of soil ranges between 6-7.2. A mature mango tree requires 11000 cubic meters per hectare per year without annual rainfall.