The 'Osteen' mango is a commercial

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 ...

that originated in

Merritt Island, Florida Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Floridian coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and so ...

History

The original tree grew from a seed planted in 1935 on the property of S.A. Osteen, the first County Commissioner of

Brevard County Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in ...

, Florida. Osteen was reportedly a seedling of Haden, which pedigree analysis later supported. The tree first fruit in 1940 and was named after the well known Osteen family that lived in the Lotus subdivision on South Tropical Trail in Merritt Island, Florida since the late 19th century. The descendants still live there to date. Osteen was evaluated for commercial use and later adopted as a commercial cultivar due to its color, production characteristics, and flavor. Today it is a favored cultivar in Europe and is still grown on a small commercial scale in Florida on Merritt Island. Osteen 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, 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 ...

and the Miami–Dade

Fruit and Spice Park The Fruit & Spice Park, formally known as the Preston B. Bird/Mary Heinlein Fruit & Spice Park, is a 37-acre park located in the heart of Redland, Florida, and is the only botanical garden of its kind in the United States. This park is operated ...

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 ...

Description

The fruit is of oblong shape with a rounded base and apex that sometimes contains a small beak. It averages a little over a pound in weight at maturity. The smooth skin has a yellow background color but usually turns dark purple. The flesh is nearly fiberless and has a mild yet sweet flavor. 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. It typically matures from July to September in Florida. The trees are vigorous growers and produce dense canopies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osteen (Mango) Mango cultivars Flora of Florida