UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



i BULLETIN No. 542 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry wlv, 



Si. WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief ttfy^mTU 



Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER August 11, 1917 



THE POLLINATION OF THE MANGO. 



By Wilson Popenoe, 

 Agricultural Explorer, Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 1 



The mango flower and its pollination 2 



The pollen 9 



The production of fruit 13 



Flowering habits of the mango 16 



Summary 20 



INTRODUCTION. 



In attempting to establish mango culture upon a commercial basis 

 in southern Florida, the Department of Agriculture has introduced 

 during the last 25 years a large number of varieties from India and 

 other important mango-growing regions. In fact, the Tropics have 

 been searched for the best mangos which they produce, and it is 

 probable that the collection now growing in Florida embraces many 

 of the best varieties in cultivation. 



The fruiting habits of some of these varieties, however, have not 

 been satisfactory. Several of them fruit very sparsely except in 

 occasional seasons. The Mulgoba, the best variety of all from the 

 standpoint of quality of fruit, has yielded a good crop on an average 

 once in four years. Even at best, some of the varieties seem in- 

 capable of producing heavy crops of fruit. 



Contrasted with these conditions, most of the common seedling 

 mangos of southern Florida and tropical America are enormously 

 productive and rarely fail to produce a crop. 



Numerous explanations have been offered to account for this 

 defect of the choice introduced varieties, but so far as known no 

 investigations have been made with the definite object of determining 

 the precise cause or causes of unfruitfulness and of finding some 

 remedy. A few years ago the trouble was attributed to anthracnose 



84444°— Bull. 542—17 1 



