The 'Eldon' mango is a
mango cultivar
The following is a list of some prominent mango cultivars. Worldwide, hundreds of mango cultivars are known, with over 1000 varieties in India.
Most commercial cultivars belong to '' Mangifera indica'', while a few commercial varieties grown in S ...
which originated in
south Florida, USA. Eldon eventually became a commercially adopted variety.
History
The original tree was grown from a seed on the property of Walter B. Eldon in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
in 1939. Reportedly the seed had been a
Haden seed, and a 1995 analysis supported this; however a 2005 pedigree study did not support this, estimating that Eldon was likely a seedling of
Cowasji Patel instead. The original tree first fruited in 1942. Propagation was begun around 1948 by Lawrence Zill and J.W. Chafer.
While Eldon did not become a popular nursery stock tree in Florida over the following decades, it did eventually gain commercial acceptance in Africa.
Eldon trees are planted in the collections of the
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
's germplasm repository in Miami, and the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center in
Homestead, Florida
Homestead is a city within Miami-Dade County in the U.S. state of Florida, between Biscayne National Park to the east and Everglades National Park to the west. The population was 80,737 as of the 2020 census. Homestead is primarily a Miami s ...
.
[http://trec.ifas.ufl.edu/crane/pdfs/TREC-Fruit-Collections.pdf p., #27]
Eldon may have been a parent of the
Southern Blush mango.
Description
The fruit is of oval shape and averages about a pound in weight; moreover, the fruit may have variegated color upon maturity, and can be a mix of green, yellow, orange and red blush. The flesh is yellow and has a sweet flavor with a pleasant aroma. The fruit contains a
monoembryonic Monoembryony is the emergence of one and only one seedling from a seed. A seed giving two or more seedlings is polyembryonic Polyembryony is the phenomenon of two or more embryos developing from a single fertilized egg. Due to the embryos resulting ...
seed.
The trees are moderately vigorous with a large canopy that contains light green leaves.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eldon (Mango)
Mango cultivars
Agriculture in Florida