Mamoncillo

The mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus) is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including Central America, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Suriname and the Caribbean. It is also known as mamón (although use of the word may be considered to be in bad taste in Spanish-speaking countries, as it can also mean 'person who sucks (fellare)' or even 'large breast'), and ackee (in St. Lucia, Barbados). However, in the rest of the Caribbean the name is used to refer to the unrelated Blighia sapida), chenet (in Trinidad and Tobago), guaya, gnep, guinep, skinnip (in Jamaica, St. Kitts), genip, guinep, ginnip, kenèp (in Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Belize, Bahamas), (in some parts of Central America), talpa jocote, canepa, quenepa (in Puerto Rico), genepa, xenepa and Spanish lime, limoncillo (in the Dominican Republic).

It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The leaves are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long. It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, somewhat like a cross between a lychee and a lime, is classified as a drupe. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). Despite the light color of the fruit's flesh, the juice stains a dark brown color, and was often used by indigenous Arawak natives to dye cloth.

Each mamoncillo fruit has a large seed inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like sunflower seeds or chestnuts.

The mamoncillo has small, greenish-white, fragrant flowers in panicles. They begin to blossom from the branch tips when the rainy season begins. The mamoncillo is an example of a polygamous plant, producing bisexual flowers as well as flowers that are exclusively male or exclusively female. Occasionally, a bisexual flower will have a "dud" (sterile) anther, which limits the number of fruits produced from self-pollination when cross-pollination is possible.

Being tropical, the mamoncillo prefers warmer temperatures. Its leaves can be damaged if the temperature hits freezing point, with serious damage occurring below -4°C. Gardeners of mamoncillos should occasionally give their plants heavy watering during the summer and propagate via seeds; grafting is also used to propagate cultivars.

The mamoncillo is also commonly planted along roadsides as an ornamental tree.

This fruit can be sweet or sour. In the southern areas of Mexico it's generally eaten with chili powder, salt, and lime. The sweet varieties are generally eaten without condiments of any kind.

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