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mallenstp

Huge mango tree central Florida

9 years ago

Biggest one I've seen in St Petersburg, Florida. Bigger than any oak tree I've seen and its in the middle of the county, not in a protected location. I wonder how old it is as it has had to of seen some major freezes. Can't even fit whole tree in the picture.

Comments (20)

  • 9 years ago

    Here's part of the canopy showing it is a mango tree from the leaves.

  • 9 years ago

    It has a bark pattern like a Mango. It must be as old as settled Florida...well over a century.


  • 9 years ago

    Amazing! I don't think I've seen a mango tree this large in person before! My sisters old home had a Haden mango that was planted in 1950 and was huge but not even close to this one!

  • 9 years ago

    what kind ? how is the fruit ?

  • 9 years ago

    How old is it? Have you any information?

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    These grow pretty fast, I don't know about it being 100 years old. If there is no reliable record of a planting date available then a core sample would have to be obtained to know for sure.

    American Forests lists a different example. If you think yours is bigger you might want to measure it and send it in. As the top does not sound particularly large for this species probably the main thing with the existing Champion is the 107 in. stem circumference - if you measure the one you found correctly perhaps you will discover it has a trunk that is as big or bigger. (Also AF accepts trees that have not been measured correctly, resulting in listings of examples that aren't in fact the biggest ones. For instance trees shaped like your mango being taped arbitrarily at 4 1/2 ft. above the ground, so that the part where the branches radiate out is recorded as the trunk. Instead of taping the narrowest point between the ground and the branches, regardless of how far from the ground that point is, giving the true trunk measurement - in such cases where trees fork below the 4 1/2 ft. level).

    Also it is funny that AF doesn't have a bigger one from Hawaii listed anyway, whether the Florida one happens to have inflated trunk dimensions recorded for it or not . Maybe there are surpassing examples in Puerto Rico also. The system depends of course on interested parties being present, noticing the trees, measuring them accurately and sending them in.

    http://www.americanforests.org/mango-mangifera-indica-2/

  • 9 years ago

    Or - its a prank. "I cant fit the whole tree in the picture"....

  • 9 years ago

  • 9 years ago

    Wow,its enormous. I was just double checking mallen that it was real and not some prank- dont take it personal.

    Whats amazing too,I think,- is you can see where it had been pruned or torn back by hurricanes...decades ago.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Would not be enormous in Hawaii for instance. And yes somebody topped it, effectively cutting it in half - or worse. So that now it amounts to a sprouting stump.

    Handsome, symmetrical, evergreen tree, to 90 ft., sometimes with a spread of 125 ft.

    --Hortus Third (1976, Cornell University for its L. H. Bailey Hortorium)

  • 9 years ago

    As Embothrium said, they do grow fast. I've seen some taller than that one which were planted in the early 1960's. Back then they would have been planted from seed so have the potential to get quite large, unlike grafted trees. Strong winds and termites are their main limitations. The one in the photo might possibly be only around 50 years old.

  • 9 years ago

    Somebody years ago thought enough of thousands of Mango fruit falling from 50' as a good reason to cut it in half. Still,I would have settled for low hanging mango fruit to avoid pruning that monarch. To think,its still a giant. Must make great seedlings to graft on to.

  • 9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The mango is not a small- or even medium-growing tree. A giant would be one more than 100 ft. tall. For example Ben-Erik van Wyk (2005, Food Plants of the World, Times Editions--Marshall Cavendish, Singapore) describes it as

    A large tropical tree (up to 40 m)

    which is 132 ft.

  • 9 years ago

    When mine gets to -say- 20' it will be a titan here in the bay area. Looking forward to that!

  • 5 years ago
    1. This is my tree! I have so many questions about it, as i have never seen or heard of a bigger one! My house was built in 1927 and is set back from the street, with the mango tree close to the sidewalk/curb. The sidewalk from my front door to the sidewalk is straight until it takes a turn to go around the tree. So any idea as to the age of the tree can start there. I've been told many things...ive been told they are pineapple mangos, they are green skinned and ripen to a deep yellow...fruit is extremely sweet and delicious but pretty fibrous (we tend to pulp and strain the fruit for cooking purposes). Ive been told that it was the "mother tree" used for grafting and such for the fruit orchards that no longer exist here. I am dying to find out more about what kind of mango tree we have here.
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  • 5 years ago

    IMMENSE!

    Mine at a decade old now has a trunk about the size of my forearm. Not a hot climate.

    Does it bury you in ripe fruit?