Mango

*Mangifera indica*

How to know it

A large dense shade tree with long glossy leaves, reddish when new. Fruit hangs on long stalks and ripens from green to yellow, orange or red.

What it does

Eaten ripe as fruit and unripe as a sour snack with salt and chilli across the region. The wood is used for furniture. Mango season is a genuine event in most tropical countries.

Safety

The sap and the skin can irritate the skin of sensitive people, being related to poison ivy. Most people are unaffected, but wash hands after peeling a lot of them.

Two things to do with children

Put a mango stone and a passion fruit next to each other. One big seed against hundreds of small ones. Ask which strategy is better and let them argue, because there is no single answer.

Grow a stone in a pot. It germinates readily and produces a seedling with striking red new leaves.