Mammea americana L.

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. Flora Borinqueña.

• Family

  Clusiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Mammea americana L.

• Description

  Species Description - Luxuriantly tropical in aspect by large, thick, bright green leaves, and tall massive trunks, the Mammee Apple is one of the most conspicuous evergreen trees in our Flora; the white, fragrant flowers are attractive, and the large, round, characteristically tipped, russet-colored fruit is edible. The tree is common in Porto Rico, in the moist and wet districts, from sea-level up to at least 450 meters altitude. It ranges nearly throughout the West Indies, and on the continent from Mexico to Venezuela and Brazil, but has been so extensively planted for shade, ornament, and fruit, that the limitations of its natural distribution are not ascertainable. The tree was early introduced into tropical parts of the Old World. The wood is reddish-brown, hard, heavy and durable. Mammea (from the aboriginal name) is a monotypic genus, established by Linnaeus, who knew the tree from Jamaica and Hispaniola. Mammea americana may reach a height of about 25 meters with a trunk up to about 0.7 meter in diameter; its twigs are smooth and stout. The thick, stiff, opposite, elliptic, rounded leaves are from 8 to 16 centimeters long, on stout stalks from 8 to 15 millimeters long; they are finely many-veined, smooth, minutely reticulated. The flowers are solitary, or few together, in the leaf-axils, on stalks about as long as those of the leaves, some of them perfect, some pistillate only; the calyx is closed in the nearly globular bud, but splits into 2 sepals 8 or 10 millimeters long; the 4, 5, or 6 white petals are obovate, about twice as long as the sepals; there are many, separate stamens, with very slender filaments; the ovary has from 2 to 4 cavities, each containing 1 or 2 ovules, the style is short, the stigma broad. The nearly globular fruit is from 7 to 12 centimeters in diameter, containing a few oblong seeds, 5 or 6 centimeters long, and falls to the ground without opening. The Mamey Apple is one of the edible fruits which were available to the aborigines of Porto Rico.

• Discussion

  Mamey Mammee Apple Clusia Family Mammea americana Linnaeus, Species Plantarum 512. 1753.