Spondias macrocarpa
| Round mombin (Spondias macrocarpa) | |
|---|---|
| Scientific name | Spondias macrocarpa[1] |
| Common name | Round mombin |
| Genus | Spondias |
| Family | Anacardiaceae |
| Order | Sapindales |
| Native range | Eastern Brazil[1] |
| Habit | Deciduous tree |
| Reported height | 8–15 m[2] |
| Fruit | Yellow, globose or ovoid drupes, about 2–4 cm long[2] |
Spondias macrocarpa is an accepted species native to eastern Brazil, where it occurs in the wet tropical biome.[1] Its accepted treatment follows the Neotropical revision by Mitchell and Daly.[3] Round mombin is a deciduous tree with yellow drupes and acidic, fibrous flesh.
Description[edit | edit source]
The tree is described as having an open, rounded crown, reaching about 8–15 m in height and 30–50 cm in bole diameter. The habitat account places it on moist, fertile sandy plateaux in the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil.[2] The name is also used online for other Spondias, including Spondias purpurea and Spondias dulcis forms; plant material and images should therefore be checked against the accepted identity before being assigned to this species.[2]
Cultivation[edit | edit source]
Soil and water[edit | edit source]
The native habitat is described as moist and fertile, with sandy soil on Atlantic-forest plateaux.[2] A practical starting point is a moisture-retentive but draining medium rather than a compacted or persistently stagnant soil. A species-specific nursery experiment found higher-quality seedlings in soil with organic compost at 2:1 by volume, or soil, carbonized rice husk, and organic compost at 1:1:1, under the stated nursery conditions; these results apply to young plants, not to mature-tree soil requirements.[4]
Sun and humidity[edit | edit source]
The species account records successful growth in full sun or dappled shade.[2] The wet-tropical native range and moist habitat support treating regular moisture as important during establishment, while choosing the brighter or more shaded position in response to local heat, drying wind, and the plant's response. This is a cultivation starting point, not a documented species-specific humidity threshold.
Seasonal changes[edit | edit source]
In a Campinas, Brazil study, one flowering episode occurred each year from October to December, with the peak mainly in October.[5] That population was growing outside the species' natural habitat, so the dates are a useful observation target rather than a fixed calendar for every climate. As a practical inference from the moist native setting, maintain moisture during active growth and adjust irrigation to local rainfall and the plant's seasonal growth rather than applying a fixed dry-season schedule.
Propagation[edit | edit source]
Fresh seed is recommended in individual containers by the available species account; it reports emergence in about 20–30 days and planting out when seedlings reach roughly 25–35 cm.[2] These timings are source-specific and should be treated as a starting range rather than a guarantee. For nursery production, the 1.8-L-bag experiment used 50% shade, sprinkler irrigation, 25 ± 5 °C, and 60–70% relative humidity; controlled-release fertilizer improved measured seedling morphology under those conditions.[4]
A grafting trial tested S. macrocarpa as rootstock for yellow mombin (S. mombin) in Pacajus, Ceará. Graft success was 10% on this rootstock, compared with 88–92% on the other tested rootstocks, and the authors advised against the combination because of incompatibility.[6] This result does not show that S. macrocarpa cannot be used as a scion or with every other Spondias combination.
Flowering, fruiting, and harvest[edit | edit source]
Spondias macrocarpa is andromonoecious: the studied inflorescences carried male and bisexual flowers. In the Campinas population, inflorescences carried about 70–1,100 flowers, with 73.44% male and 26.56% bisexual flowers.[5] No fruit was produced in the autonomous or hand self-pollination treatments, while hand cross-pollination produced the highest fruiting rates in that study.[5] The population was small and outside the natural habitat, so these results support planning for cross-pollination but do not establish a universal fruit-set limit.
Harvest timing should be observed locally after flowering rather than transferred directly from the Campinas dates to another climate; the study covered one population outside the natural habitat.
Fruit and uses[edit | edit source]
The fruit is described as a yellow, globose or ovoid drupe about 2–4 cm long, with thin skin, succulent thin fibrous flesh, and one large seed.[2] The flesh is described as acidic. The fruit is eaten occasionally raw and is more commonly used in sorbets and juices.[2]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ [3] Mitchell, J.D. & Daly, D.C. 2015. A revision of Spondias L. (Anacardiaceae) in the Neotropics. PhytoKeys 55: 1–92.
- ↑ [4] Physical-Chemical characteristics of alternative substrates and fertilization on the growth and quality of Spondias macrocarpa seedlings. Comunica Scientiae, 2022.