''Bouea macrophylla'', commonly known as gandaria or plum mango or mango plum in English, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

. The tree belongs to the 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 ...

which also includes

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 ...

and

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 c ...

Description

The

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

tree grows to heights of 25 meters. Its leaves are lanceolate to elliptic in shape (see:

Leaf shape The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular ...

), and range from 13 to 45 cm (5 to 17 inches) long and from 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3 inches) wide. The fruit (resembling a mango) are green in colour and mature to an orange/yellow, with the seed being pink. They grow to roughly 2 to 5 cm (0.7 to 1.9 inches) in

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...

. The entire fruit, including its skin is edible. The fruit range from sweet to sour in flavor similar to the

Alphonso mango The Alphonso mango is a named mango cultivar that originated in India. Origin The variety is named after Afonso de Albuquerque, a distinguished militarian and viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515. Jesuit missionaries introduced graftin ...

, and have a light smell of

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a special ...

. When ripe, the fruit is soft and has fibrous mango-like seeds. Flowering and fruiting times differ for

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. *Thailand : flowers in November to December, and fruit appears from April to May. *Indonesia : flowers in June to November, and fruit appears from March to June.

Distribution

The tree is native to

, and

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. It is also found in

, Laos, and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

, where it is commercially grown.

Uses

Consumption

Both the leaves and fruit from the tree can be eaten. The leaves can be eaten raw when they are still young, and can be used in

salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a v ...

s. While the seed is edible, the

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo an ...

is generally bitter. The fruit is very acidic and has a mango-like flavour. It can be eaten raw, or made into dishes such as

pickle Pickle may refer to: * Pickle, a pickled cucumber in the United States and Canada * Pickle, a sweet, vinegary pickled chutney popular in Great Britain, such as Branston Pickle, also known as "sweet pickle" or "ploughman's pickle" * South Asian pi ...

compote Compote or compôte (French for ''mixture'') is a dessert originating from medieval Europe, made of whole or pieces of fruit in sugar syrup. Whole fruits are cooked in water with sugar and spices. The syrup may be seasoned with vanilla, lemon o ...

, or

sambal Sambal is an Indonesian chilli sauce or paste, typically made from a mixture of a variety of chilli peppers with secondary ingredients, such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, and lime juice. ''Sambal'' is an I ...

. Unripened fruit can be used to make

rojak Rujak (Indonesian spelling) or Rojak ( Malay spelling) is a salad dish of Javanese origin, commonly found in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. The most popular variant in all three countries is a salad composed of a mixture of sliced fruit and ...

and

asinan ''Asinan'' is a pickled (through brined or vinegared) vegetable or fruit dish, commonly found in Indonesia. ''Asin'', Indonesian for "salty", is the process of preserving the ingredients by soaking them in a solution of salty water. ''Asinan'' ...

Functional

The entire tree can be used as an ornamental fruit bearing

shade tree A shade tree is a large tree whose primary role is to provide shade in the surrounding environment due to its spreading canopy and crown, where it may give shelter from sunlight in the heat of the summer for people who seek recreational needs ...

due to its dense foliage.

Other names

''Bouea macrophylla'' is commonly known in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national id ...

as the "marian plum", "gandaria", "plum mango" and "mango plum". In

Malay Malay may refer to: Languages * Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore ** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century ** Indonesi ...

, the tree is known as ''kundang'' in

and its fruit ''buah kundang''. The Malays differentiate between two varieties: * ''Kundang daun kecil'' ("small-leaf ''kundang''") also known as ''remia, remnia'' or ''rumenia''. * ''Kundang daun besar'' ("large-leaf ''kundang''"), also known as ''kundang hutan'' ("jungle ''kundang'') or ''setar''. This usually refers to ''

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 m i ...

'', and is the origin of the

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' ( proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name o ...

Alor Setar Alor Setar ( Jawi: الور ستار, Kedahan: ''Loqstaq'') is the state capital of Kedah, Malaysia. It is the second-largest city in the state after Sungai Petani and one of the most-important cities on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia ...

(with ''alor'' meaning "small stream"). In

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesia ...

, it is known as ''ramania'' and ''gandaria''. It is also known in

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode bloc ...

as ''maprang'' (มะปราง), ''mayong'' (มะยง) and ''mayong chit'' (มะยงชิด). In

Burmese Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese (horse), a ...

as ''mayan-thi'' (မရန်းသီး); and in

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

as ''thanh trà''. In 2015 a major retailer introduced the fruit to the British public under the name ''plango'', apparently a

portmanteau word A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsPlango press announcement
/ref> which is not botanically plausible as plums and mangoes are not in the same family.

References

Sources

''Bouea macrophylla'' taxonomy
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Mansfeld database
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AgroForestryTree Database
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1493371 macrophylla Fruits originating in Asia