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Fruit pictures page two

The above photos show the light green coloration of the unripe mangosteen still on the tree. The fruit are 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 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.