GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post

07-07-2006, 01:51 PM posted to rec.gardens.edible,aus.gardens

(Harry Chickpea) writes:
Mangos are tricky. They are of the same family? as poison ivy or some
other nasty plant, but they sure taste good. I get mouth sores if I
overdo on mango, but I love the Keat variety.

The tropical north of Australia has the ideal climate for growing mangoes.
There is a variety that is never marketted, but you can find growing semi-
wildly in twos or threes in open paddocks or some backyards in North
Queensland, and this variety is known as turpentine mango. It has the un-
mistakeable odour of turpentine--that's ordinary paint thinner here in Oz.
When there are no other mangoes in season these turpentine mangoes are an
okay substitute for the mango-deprived. They are smallish and a bit stringy,
but it's like eating an ordinary mango in a room that has been freshly
painted. You grow to like them when there are none better.

Any local readers able to say whether the turpentine mango is a native of
Australia, otherwise where would it have come from? Perhaps early growers
found that it was useful for pollination or something?

Crosspost added.
--
John Savage (my news address is not valid for email)