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''Spondias'' is a genus of 
A theory regarding the name of the city of
About 10 species of ''Spondias'' bear edible fruits and have been domesticated for fruit production. These fruits are also consumed by herbivorous mammals such as deer.
In the Western Ghats of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants t ...
s in the cashew
The cashew tree (''Anacardium occidentale'') is a tropical evergreen tree native to South America in the genus ''Anacardium'' that produces the cashew seed and the cashew apple accessory fruit. The tree can grow as tall as , but the dwarf cul ...
family, Anacardiaceae
The Anacardiaceae, commonly known as the cashew family or sumac family, are a family of flowering plants, including about 83 genera with about 860 known species. Members of the Anacardiaceae bear fruits that are drupes and in some cases produce ...
. The genus consists of 17 described species, 7 of which are native to the Neotropics and about 10 are native to tropical Asia. They are commonly named hog plums, Spanish plums, libas in Bikol and in some cases golden apples for their brightly colored fruit which resemble an apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
or small plum
A plum is a fruit of some species in ''Prunus'' subg. ''Prunus'.'' Dried plums are called prunes.
History
Plums may have been one of the first fruits domesticated by humans. Three of the most abundantly cultivated species are not found ...
at a casual glance. They are only distantly related to apple and plum trees, however. A more unequivocal common name is mombins.
A theory regarding the name of the city of Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...
, Thailand is that the name is derived from th, -มะกอกน้ำ; 'water olive', the Thai name for the fruit of '' Spondias dulcis''. In Cambodia, ''Spondias pinnata'' is called /pɷːn siː pʰlaɛ/ (ពោនស៊ីផ្លែ) or /məkaʔ prẹj/ (ម្កាក់ព្រៃ), and ''Spondias dulcis'' simply /məkaʔ/ (ម្កាក់). ''Spondias pinnata'' is called ''Pulicha kaai'' in the Tamil language, which means "sour fruit." It is also called "Amate Kaai" in the Kannada language
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native ...
, ''Ambade'' in Tulu
Tulu may refer to:
People
*Derartu Tulu (born 1972), Ethiopian long-distance runner
*Walid Yacoubou (born 1997), Togolese footballer nicknamed "Tulu"
India
*Tulu calendar, traditional solar calendar generally used in the regions of southwest Kar ...
and Konkani. In Sri Lanka it is called ''Amberella''. In Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
it is known as ''Aamra'' (আমড়া) and when served with seasonings it is a very popular street food.
Description
They aredeciduous
In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...
or semi-evergreen
Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical woody spec ...
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
s growing to 25 m tall. The leaves
A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, st ...
are spirally arranged, pinnate
Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, an ...
, rarely bipinnate or simple. The fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in partic ...
is a drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part ( exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel ...
similar to a small mango
A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree '' Mangifera indica''. It is believed to have originated in the region between northwestern Myanmar, Bangladesh, and northeastern India. ''M. indica'' has been cultivated in Sout ...
(in the related genus ''Mangifera
''Mangifera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae. It contains approximately 69 species, with the best-known being the Common Mango ('' Mangifera indica''). The center of diversity of the genus is in the Malesia ...
''), 4–10 cm long, ripening yellow or orange. It has a single seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosper ...
.
The Malesian species of ''Spondias'' were revised by Ding Hou in 1978.''Flora Malesiana'' series 1, 8(3):395-577. The most recently recognized species, '' Spondias testudinis'', was described in 1998.John D. Mitchell and Douglas C. Daly. 1998. "The "tortoise's cajá" - a new species of ''Spondias'' (Anacardiaceae) from southwestern Amazonia" ''Brittonia'' 50( ):447-451.
As food
About 10 species of ''Spondias'' bear edible fruits and have been domesticated for fruit production. These fruits are also consumed by herbivorous mammals such as deer.
In the Western Ghats of Karnataka
Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...
flower buds and tender fruits are used in pickle preparation.
In Thai cuisine
Thai cuisine ( th, อาหารไทย, , ) is the national cuisine of Thailand.
Thai cooking places emphasis on lightly prepared dishes with strong aromatic components and a spicy edge. Australian chef David Thompson, an expert on Thai ...
both the fruits and the tender leaves are eaten. In Odisha its called ambada, the fruit is used as a souring agent in curries.
Selected species
, ''Plants of the World online'' has 19 accepted species: Selected synonyms include: * '' Spondias cytherea'' — synonym of '' Spondias dulcis'' * '' Spondias haplophylla'' — synonym of ''Bouea oppositifolia
''Bouea oppositifolia'', also known as plum mango, kundang, kundangan or remenia, is a species of flowering plant, a fruit tree in the mango family, that is native to Indochina and Southeast Asia.
Description
The tree grows to 10–20&nb ...
''
* '' Spondias indica'' — synonym of '' Solenocarpus indicus''
* '' Spondias lakonensis'' — synonym of '' Allospondias lakonensis''
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q311460 Anacardiaceae genera Fruit trees