African Mangosteen

Description:

African Mangosteen, as its name indicates, is a fruit of Africa. It bears very tasty fruits. The African Mangosteen is widespread in the warmer parts of Africa, from just north of Durban as far as Somalia and Guinea. In this range it encounters widely varying rainfall (from about 200 to 1000 mm a year) and soil types. However, the temperature is a unifying feature: winters (as far as they exist) are warm and summers are hot to very hot. The trees are notably sensitive to cold, though quite hardy to both drought and heavy rain. African Mangosteen is a small tree reaching 18 m in East Africa, pyramidal when young but later spreading, with thick, woody young branches and yellow to red resin. Leaves usually 3 in a whorl (may be 4 or opposite), variable in shape but usually egg- or lance-shaped, generally 60–110 × 30–55 mm, blue-green with whitish veins, waxy.