The Mangosteen: Some Farm History

This site is dedicated to Ed Kraujalis, “the mangosteen man.” To all who knew him and loved him, he left us all long before his time and long before any of us could believe it. His devotion to the mangosteen fruit and the awareness of its charms meant our paths would cross years ago. I will always be grateful for his patience, earnestness, and willingness to provide me with any help he could to help me bring the mangosteen out into the light of day. I think of him every time I am on my farm and see many of the older trees that were from “the mangosteen man.” In this way, he is still with us and will be for many years to come.

The Mangosteen: More History

Freshly picked mangosteen, “the queen of tropical fruit.”

David Fairchild, 1903

“Maturi sunt adeo delicati et grate dulces ac optima lansiavel uvae maturae excogitari possant. simulque adeo succosi ut multi vix satiari hisce fructibus possint, ob excellentum odorum gratamque, dulcedinum putaturque, quum aegrotus nullum alium amplius appetat, vel edere possit cibum, hoc delectari adhuc fructu; si vero hunc non desiderati de ejus salute desperandum esse, &c.”

Herbarium amboinense, vol. 1

I doubt that I could say it better.

The above praise is a quotation of comments made by the Dutch governor Georgius Everhardus Rumphius (1628-1702) of Amboyna (alternatively Amboina, now Ambon), a part of present-day Indonesia, referring, of course, to the mangosteen. What he was really trying to say…I don’t have a clue, but it looks pretty impressive, no? Okay, see below for the translation that was thankfully included in the same article from The Gardeners’ Chronicle, No. 22, pp. 371-372. June 22, 1855.

“When ripe, the fruit is as delicate and agreeably sweet as the finest lansehs (another famous Malay fruit tree, of which a variety called the Duku is the domesticated representation, which ought next to engage the attention of the wealthy) and may even be mistaken for ripe grapes. It is at the same time so juicy that many people can never eat enough of it, so delicious is its fragrance and agreeable its sweetness; and it is believed that the sick, when appetite or the power of eating has wholly gone, are nevertheless delighted with this fruit; or at least if they will not take to Mangosteens their case is indeed hopeless.”

Link to Related Site

https://www.rambutan.com/
This is another Panoramic Fruit Company site intended to provide information on the rambutan.

Flowers, Developing Mangosteens

The female flower bud.

The open flower.

The very earliest signs of the developing fruit.

The fruit is clearly visible now, with the distinctive raised area on the bottom of the fruit, corresponding to the number of segments inside the fruit. It then requires over 100 days to reach full ripeness. At that time, the fruit stays on the tree until it has turned more purple and brown patches may appear as well. There are some minor insect pests, such as thrips, which may scrape the surface of the mangosteen fruit, damaging the pigment cells. The fruit ends up completely brown at full ripeness. The quality of the fruit inside is unaffected by this, but it is not as attractive to look at.

The rind of the mangosteen starts out almost white or very pale green and gradually turns red, then purple or dark brown. Notice also that the sepals remain attached to the developing mangosteen fruit from beginning to end. The sepals start out colored red on the side facing the fruit, green on the outside. Once the fruit ripens, the entire sepal can become quite brightly colored again.

The bright red color of the fruit picture above shows when one can first pick and enjoy the fruit. It should be consumed as soon as possible. If the rind starts to dry out, then it becomes more difficult to open it (see Enjoying the Mangosteen page).

The above photos show the light green coloration of the unripe mangosteen still on the tree. The fruit is often hidden inside the canopy and can be hard to spot when they start to turn red and then dark purple. To some extent, the trees are considered “alternate bearing,” meaning that a year of heavy fruiting is often followed by a much lighter harvest the following year.

The distinctive raised brown ridges radiating out like a star on the bottom of the fruit correspond to the number of fruit segments inside. The picture, lower right, showing the opened fruit with seven sections, had seven ridges on the bottom of the rind, and the size of two or three of the segments indicates possibly as many as three seeds. There can be as many seeds as there are segments, but many fruits have no seeds, or they are small and poorly developed and may not germinate. On average, there are four to eight segments inside each fruit.

Mangosteen and the New York Times

“I’ve waited so long for this moment, he said in July, savoring the floral, sweet-tart flavor of one of the most delicious of fruits, and certainly the most hyped: the mangosteen.”

New York Times, August 9, 2006. “Forbidden? Not the Mangosteen.” by David Karp

The above excerpt is from an article written by David Karp, an adventurer and explorer in his own right. This article about the mangosteen (from our farm) became one more in a continuum spanning over a century; different New York Times writers and reporters have long embellished tales and gushed over this exotic rarity. They all shared a common goal: raising public awareness of the mangosteen for their readership in the Western Hemisphere.

This most recent Karp article updates the chronicle of the slow but steady march of greater knowledge and access to this exotic fruit, taking it from an esoteric rarity seen only by those lucky enough to travel overseas to eventual availability in the American marketplace as recorded by the New York Times.

David Karp, aka “The Fruit Detective,” spent several days photographing and gathering information for this article. We walked and stooped and slipped in the mud day after day, and David Karp took any and every opportunity to photograph another mangosteen. Usually, right after that, we ate them.

Why an article in the New York Times about an exotic fruit called the mangosteen? Not the first time and certainly not the last. Which see…

February 5, 1878. “The Notes of a Traveler.” By T.W.K.

Writing about “this most celebrated fruit of the East,” T.W.K. goes on to say…

“This pulp melts away in your mouth after the manner of a ripe peach or strawberry; it has a taste which nobody can describe any more than he can tell how a canary sings or a violet smells, and I know of nothing more forcible than the statement of a Yankee skipper who pronounced the mangosteen the “bang-upest fruit” he had ever seen.

or…

August 23, 1925. “Queen Once Vainly Sought fruit, the US Will Get”

In this article, David Fairchild (see History and Folklore page) is quoted extensively. The hopes and expectations that the mangosteen would finally reach our shores were stated by the Department of Agriculture as follows:

“…experiments in tropical America have reached the stage where the regular delivery of mangosteen to the United States will be possible in about 10 years.”

So one can see that the much heralded arrival of the mangosteen is an ongoing\quest, a logistical challenge which gets closer to being a reality every day. Centuries in the making, we are soon to reach fruition.

Or even more recently…

August 8, 2007, “Mangosteens Arrive, but Be Prepared to Pay” By DAVID KARP Published: August 8, 2007

This most current reprise updates the current situation regarding the mangosteen, as small shipments were made to New York and California. To see the entire article might require that you register with the New York Times online edition. It is well worth it just to see the reception and prices that this fruit has garnered.

I.C.

The Early Years

This website is a personal effort spanning several years and countless hours of research. But from the very beginning, I needed help in gathering information, and I found it from all around the globe. I asked and received input, documents, and suggestions from people who are a credit to their institutions. I want them to know that without their help, you would not be reading this or seeing this website in the present form, it seemed headed towards in fits and starts from the beginning.

Help came in from several continents, from many nationalities, from people who spoke a second language to help me. I am sure that I sorely tested the patience of some and had others simply scratching their heads in amazement or incredulity at my seemingly unending obsession with the mangosteen. Some probably just hoped I would go away. And I have to say up front that if it were not for the extraordinary patience of my wife, I never could have gotten this far on the website you see before you.

I must assert that any and all comments and observations contained herein are mine and mine alone, and I accept all responsibility without qualification for the conclusions made and the observations put forward in this website. No one who provided me with help should be held in any way responsible for my presentation of the data or my interpretation of its content.

That said, I want to single out both individuals and the institutions they represented so well. In no particular order, I must start with Marie Long of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden, Nancy Korber of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and Katherine Powis of the Horticultural Society of New York. These three people provided me with a starting point and a map along the way. I kept going back to them for extra help, and they gave of their time and their institutions’ resources without hesitation.

Further thanks go out to the whole highly professional staff at the National Agricultural Library, Craig Brough of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the registrar at the Royal Archives in Britain, the British Newspaper Library, Paul Carter of the British Library, the Natural History Museum in London, England, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, Francis Zee in Hawaii with the USDA germplasm facility, the Royal Horticultural Society in England, the National Archives of the UK and Mr. Neff and Carol C. at the American Society for Horticultural Science.

A special thanks to the Plant Explorers site and my contact there, J. W. Kingsley. Sometimes you come across some information that overlaps with your primary area of research, and this site does that in a very orderly and concise way. The involvement of Joseph Banks and Captain William Bligh with the mangosteen is indicated on my website (see History and Folklore page), but the broader context of the times is beautifully presented at http://plantexplorers.com/. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the history of botany and the people who were an integral part of it. In particular, I would draw attention to the pages on Sir Joseph Banks, starting with
http://plantexplorers.com/explorers/biographies/banks/joseph-banks-01.htm

I would also like to thank Patricia at the Thoroughbred Registry for filling in some gaps. There were many people who never got back to me, probably thought I was nuts, just did not have the time or the inclination, and then there were people like Patricia who had nothing to gain, nothing to lose except some time, and who shared with me some information I would have been hard-pressed to get any other way. In a similar vein, I want to thank Lucy Moore for clearing up a point of information that went to the core of my research regarding Queen Victoria and the mangosteen. Very grateful to both of you for giving me some of your time and input.

I was also granted access to several databases that ultimately had no pertinent information for my narrow purposes, but which enabled me to further explore this topic, the mangosteen, in greater depth. Put another way, you cannot know what is under a rock until you lift it up and look. But that does not guarantee that the answers will be there, and if they are not, at least you will then know that you must look elsewhere! I thank the Gale Group for their assistance and access to the huge database they maintain.

I also want to thank Pat in the UK for generously providing me with a copy of the letter that was written by Eleanor, Duchess of Northumberland. He is associated with a historically and visually rich locale in the UK, and the website he is involved with is http://aldbrough-st-john.co.uk/website/. And I owe him a beer. Maybe two.

And a final thanks to R. D. of Griffith University for our dialogue via email on the genetics of the mangosteen. The paper I am referring to by Rod and his group is cited elsewhere in this website (Science, Non-Science and Nonsense page), but I wanted to express my gratitude to Rod for taking time out from his hectic scholastic workload to answer some of my mangosteen-related questions (http://www.griffith.edu.au/).