Mammea suriga (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Kosterm.

In open evergreen forests up to 700 m.

Mammea species are evergreen trees, bark smooth, outer bark yellowish gray, inner bark reddish, with usually with resinous latex or milky white or yellow, branches terete, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite, or sometimes subverticellate, lanceolate-obovate to elliptic-oblong, margins entire, apex acute to obtuse, bright, glossy, leathery, coriaceous, lateral veins many, pinnately veined, glandular pellucid dotted in the middle of each areole, dense areolate venation, scales present near leaf bases, petiole stout, exstipulate. Inflorescence axillary or on in tubercles of bare branches of the trunk and branches, solitary or fascicled in cymes. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, dioecious or polygamous, actinomorphic, pedicellate, bracts small many, near the base of the flowers, calyx connate when young, spilt into 2 during anthesis, usually persistent in fruit, petals 4 rarely 7, white, deciduous. Stamens numerous, free, filaments slender, free filiform, whitish, anthers basifixed, erect, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, globose, bilocular, absent in male flowers, ovule 2-4, anatropus, style stout, short, stigma 2-4 lobed, peltate. Fruit indehiscent drupe, ovoid-globose, with firm exocarp, leathery and pulpy.

Tree

Mammea species flowers are complete, bisexual, i.e., with functional male (androecium) and female (gynoecium), including stamens, carpels and ovary; dioecious (having male flowers in one plant and female in another), rarely polygamous (male & bisexual. Pollination is entomophilous i.e., by insects, or cleistogamy i.e., by self or allogamy i.e., by cross pollination. Flowering/Fruiting: March—July.

Seeds may be dispersed by autochory i.e., self dispersal, zoochory i.e., dispersal by birds or animals, anthropochory i.e., dispersal by humans.

Evergreen trees, about 10-18 m tall, bole about 4-8 m long, glabrous, bark rough, outer bark greenish gray, inner bark reddish, becoming brown when mature, exfoliating irregularly, with usually with resinous latex or milky white, wood smooth, reddish gray, branches terete or obscurely quadrangular, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite, or sometimes ternately verticellate, lanceolate-obovate to elliptic-oblong, about 12-25 x 4-7.5 cm across, base obtuse, margins entire, apex acute with rounded tip, obtuse to emarginate, dark green, glabrous, glossy, midrib impressed above and prominent beneath, lateral veins few, faint, anastomosing about 1 cm near the margins, faint dense reticulate venation, petiole stout, slightly canaliculated or concave above, about 5-8 mm long, exstipulate. Inflorescence axillary or on in dense tubercles of bare branches of the trunk and branches, fascicled in cymes or solitary. Flowers unisexual or bisexual, monoecious, actinomorphic, fragrant, white or pinkish, about 1 cm across, usually bisexual in cultivation, buds globular, pedicel slender, glabrous, thickened towards the apex, bracts 8, subulate, near the base of the flowers, calyx connate when young, spilt into 2 during anthesis, about 5-7 mm long, usually persistent in fruit, petals 6 rarely 5-7, oblong-obovate, white, apex obtuse, deciduous, about 8 mm long. Stamens numerous about 70-100, free, filaments slender, free filiform, yellow, about 4-5 mm long, anthers basifixed, oblong, 1.5 mm long, erect, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary superior, globose, bilocular,about 1.3 mm long, absent in male flowers, ovule 2-4, anatropus, style stout, about 0.5 mm long, stigma 2 lobed, peltate. Fruit indehiscent berry, ovoid-globose, about 2.5-3 x 1-1.5 cm long, glabrous, with hard persistent style, juicy and pulpy, seeds 1-4, about 1 x 2 cm across.

In open evergreen forests up to 700 m.

Mammea species are susceptible to various insect pests, virus and fungi.

Notes: Western Ghats, often Cultivated

Evergreen and deciduous forests, altitude up to 600 m.

Dense humid forests

Not evaluated (IUCN).

Wood is good timber, used in making furniture, building construction, boats, also used in folk medicine. Flowers used in perfumes, seeds used for making viscid gum, fruits are edible and delicious.