莽吉柿 mang ji shi

Mangostana garcinia Gaertner.

Trees small, 12-20 m tall. Branches many, dense, decussate; twigs distinctly angled. Petiole robust, ca. 2 cm, densely and transversely wrinkled when dry; leaf blade shiny, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, 14-25 × 5-10 cm, thickly leathery, midvein raised on both surfaces; secondary veins dense, to 40-50 pairs, joining just within leaf margin, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, margin involute, apex shortly acuminate. Plant dioecious. Male flowers rare, 2-9, clustered at apex of branchlet; pedicels short; stamen fascicles 4, anthers 2-celled, cells longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode conic. Female flowers solitary or paired at apex of branchlet, slightly larger than male ones, 4.5-5 cm in diam.; pedicels ca. 1.2 cm; ovary 5-8-loculed; style nearly absent; stigma 5- or 6-lobed. Mature fruit purple-red, sometimes yellow-brown spotted, globose, 5-8 cm in diam., smooth. Seeds 4 or 5 or more, pulp white, juicy, fleshy. Fl. Sep-Oct, fr. Nov-Dec. 2n = 96.

Cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [native to Indonesia (Maluku); widely cultivated in tropical regions of Africa and Asia].

This is a well-known fruit tree (mangosteen).