The
mangosteen (
Garcinia mangostana) is a tropical
evergreen tree with edible fruit native to
Maritime Southeast Asia, from the
Malay Peninsula to
Borneo. It is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India, and other tropical areas such as Colombia,
Puerto Rico and
Florida, where the tree has been introduced. The fruit is sweet and tangy, juicy, somewhat fibrous, with fluid-filled vesicles (like the flesh of
citrus fruits), with an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind (
exocarp) when
ripe. In each fruit, the fragrant edible white flesh that surrounds each seed is the
endocarp, the inner layer of the
ovary, and is roughly the same shape and size as a
tangerine, about 4 to 6 centimetres (1.5 to 2.5 inches) in diameter. This photograph, which was
focus-stacked from 22 individual images, shows two mangosteens, one whole, and the other halved to expose the endocarp.
Photograph credit: Ivar Leidus
Lourie Pieterse
