Mammea

The mammea or otherwise American apricot plant is an eternally green tree with a rather dense, spreading crown. The alternate, leathery, thick leaves are colored dark green and have the shape of a wide ellipse. After flowering, fruits appear on the plant, which are of particular interest to humans due to their pleasant taste and beneficial properties.

This species has been acclimatized on the islands of the Caribbean and is currently the most widespread in Latin America, the Philippines, the island of Java, as well as in certain areas of Africa.

Mammea grows well in tropical climate conditions on low-lying plains. A rather unpretentious plant breeds seedlings and is able to grow in home gardens. Mammea trees are ready for fruiting at the age of six to ten years, while fruit can only be harvested fully ripe. It is believed that it is best to pick up fruit from the ground as soon as they fall.

In fact, mammea fruits are large round berries, the diameter of which often reaches 20 centimeters with a maximum weight of up to one and a half kilograms. The soft-leathery matte bark of the fruit is about half a centimeter thick and has a brown color and may be slightly rough. Under it is a dry, whitish and very bitter shell that surrounds the flesh of the fruit in golden yellow or orange, which becomes juicy and gently fibrous by the time it is fully ripe.

The aromatic flesh in good mammea varieties is distinguished by an exquisite, sour-sweet taste that resembles the taste of apricot or mango, while the inside of the fruits of other varieties can be too sour. Mammea fruits contain one (significantly less often up to four) brown, woody, netted veins of an oval or rounded seed.

In a ripe, soft state, the flesh of mammy fruits of good varieties is very tasty and used as food in fresh form. If desired, it can be sprinkled with sugar and bitten as a fruit or served in boiled form as a dessert. At the same time, the bitter peel of mammea fruits, along with the shell located under it, is always removed. Poisonous seeds of mammea fruits are also discarded along with fibrous pulp firmly attached to them.

In culinary affairs, based on the flesh of mammea fruits, it is customary to cook delicious marmalade or make aromatic jelly, wine and fruit juice. However, eating mammea fruits in large quantities is not recommended due to the fact that it can cause intestinal disorders. Immature mammea fruits are not at all usable.