What Does a Mangosteen Tree Look Like? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Mangosteen Tree Morphological Characteristics
Mangosteen is also known as shanzhu, shanzhuzi, and daonianzi. It can refer both to the mangosteen plant and to the fruit of this plant. It is a famous tropical fruit that can be eaten raw or made into preserved fruit. It originated in Southeast Asia and generally takes 10 years of cultivation before it begins to bear fruit. It has extremely strict environmental requirements and is as famous as durian, known as the “Queen of Fruits”.
The mangosteen tree is a small tree, 12-20 m tall, with many dense branches, decussate, and branchlets with obvious longitudinal ridges. Leaves are simple and opposite, elliptic or long ovate-elliptic, 11-21 cm long and 4.5-10 cm wide, thick and leathery, dark green and glossy on the upper surface. The lower surface is pale yellow-green, the petiole is short and thick, the leaf base is obtuse, the leaf tip is acute, the margin is entire, the veins are obvious, the midrib is pale green and raised, and there are 15-27 pairs of lateral veins. They are parallel to one another and almost perpendicular to the main vein, and the leaves are easily broken. When a leaf breaks, yellow resin flows out.
The mangosteen tree generally has solitary terminal flowers, sometimes 2-3 flowers growing together, with only female flowers and no unisexual male flowers. When fully open, the flower is 5-6.2 cm in diameter, with 4 sepals in two rows, two and two joined together, yellow-green. The margin is tinged with red, the petals are 4, obovate, of unequal size, very thick, imbricate, with the tip incurved or recurved, red. They fall off 1-2 days after the flower opens, the stamens are 10-23, generally 16, free or nearly connate at the base, the anthers are yellow, the ovary is nearly spherical, 4-8 locular, the style is very broad and thick, and the stigma is 4-8 lobed. The flowering period is September-October.
The mangosteen tree's berry is subspherical, 3.5-7 cm in diameter, with the calyx persistent, the rind 0.6-1 cm thick, fibrous, and when an unripe fruit is damaged it exudes yellow juice; the ripe fruit is purplish red. The fruit contains 0-4 seeds, generally 1-2, brown, rough, with fibrous lines on the surface; a well-developed seed is about 2-2.5 cm long, about 1.5-2 cm wide, and 0.7-1.2 cm thick, with a grain weight of 0.1-2.29, and an average grain weight of 19. The main root is strong and penetrates deep into the soil, the lateral roots are few and weak, with few root hairs; transplanting damages the roots and makes survival difficult. The fruiting period is November-December.
The mangosteen tree has a straight stem, rough, dark brown bark, and a yellow bitter resinous sap. The crown is conical. The branches are opposite and arranged in reflective symmetry. The branches are stout, and the young branchlets generally have 4 strip-like angles.