Mangosteen plant is an evergreen, erect tree reaching about 20- 60 ft in height. It commonly found in tropical rainforests of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines as well as in some cultivated orchards in Sri Lanka, and India, where annual precipitation and relative humidity are favorable for its growth. Fresh purple fruits can be available in the markets from June until October.
Each tree bears several deep purple, round shaped fruits capped with light green calyx at the stem end. Completely matured fruit measures about 3-7 cm in diameter. Its outer tough rind is about 7-12 mm thick which contains bitter yellow latex that stains clothes black.
Internally; the fruit features 4 to 10 juicy, snow-white, soft, fleshy, triangular segments as in oranges. Each segment may carry 1-4 off-white colored seeds. Seeds are inedible and bitter in taste. The flavor of the fruit can be described as sweet, mildy tangy, fragrant, and delicious.
lemon-drop mangosteens and african mangosteens
Lemon-drop, and African mangosteens (Imbe). The fruits are smaller than purple ones.
Photo courtesy: I like plants
Different species of Garcinia genus are grown all around the Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America all along the tropical belt. Cherapu or Button mangosteen (Garcinia prainiana) is native to Malaysia. It features somewhat flat, mandarin orange-like shape with thin rind that can be peeled very easily by hand, again as in oranges.
Lemon drop mangosteens (Garcinia madruno) are small size (2-4 cm diameter) fruits, native to Malayan peninsula.
African mangosteen or Imbe (Garcinia livingstonei) is native to West Africa. They are slightly larger than lemon drop type.