Spondias purpurea
(red mombin)

Preferred Common Name

• red mombin

Other Scientific Names

• Spondias dulcis Blanco

International Common Names

• English: purple mombin; spanish plum tree
• Spanish: ciruelo del fraile (Bolivia); ciruelo mexicano (Chile); jocote colorado
• French: mombin rouge

Local Common Names

• Germany: Mombin-Pflaumenbaum, Roter

EPPO code

• SPXPU (Spondias purpurea)

• Domain: Eukaryota
•     Kingdom: Plantae
•         Phylum: Spermatophyta
•             Subphylum: Angiospermae
•                 Class: Dicotyledonae
•                     Order: Sapindales
•                         Family: Anacardiaceae
•                             Genus: Spondias
•                                 Species: Spondias purpurea

Spondias purpurea is a well-defined and taxonomically separate species from other Spondias spp. (Barfod, 1987). No taxonomic treatment is available of the varieties or of the species’ genetic diversity (Duarte and Paull, 2015).

General description

In the lowland tropics, the species is a small, low-branched deciduous tree or shrub (3-6 m) and in the highlands a spreading, thick-trunked tree that can reach 7-15 m. The open canopy can spread up to 15 m (Leon, 1983), with a trunk that can reach a diameter of 50 cm. The bark is grey and usually smooth. The main branches tend to grow horizontally and all branches are fairly brittle. Cuts and bruises in the bark produce a thick and transparent exudate.

Leaves

The compound leaves have 9-19 nearly sessile obovate to lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, alternate, 2-6 cm long by 1.25 cm wide leaflets that are bright red or purple, becoming green when mature.

Flowers

The axillary inflorescences come in 1-10 cm long panicles with a few flowers that usually appear at the older and defoliated nodes. Each panicle has male, female and bisexual flowers. The flowers have 4-5 sepals and 4-5 tiny red to purple petals that are usually 2.5-3.5 mm long at anthesis. Pollen is normally not formed because the mother cells of the micro-sporangia do not develop (Juliano, 1932).

Fruit

Fruit are parthenocarpic. An oblong to obovoid, sub-globose or even pear-shaped drupe, measuring 2.5-5.0 by 1.0-3.5 cm, with a smooth and glossy peel. The fruit appear solitary or in groups of two or three. The ripe fruit is normally dark or bright red but can be purple, orange, red-and-yellow, and sometimes even yellow, and can be confused with the yellow mombin. The mesocarp is fleshy and juicy, 5-7 mm thick, acid in flavour, very aromatic, yellow, and fibrous, and is attached to a fibrous and hard endocarp that can be 1.25-2.5 cm long and normally has no seeds but the vestiges of unfertilized ovules (Avilan et al., 1989, Duarte and Paull, 2015).

Red mombin is eaten green, half mature or ripe (Leon, 1983). Green fruit are eaten with salt and vinegar as a snack or boiled in syrup; ripe red fruit are mainly eaten fresh. The soft exocarp is easily injured and so the mesocarp is often processed into marmalade, juice, wine and liquor. The pulp is used to flavour ice cream. In Mexico and Guatemala, dry fruit are eaten in a dessert made with brown sugar; a fermented drink is also prepared in these countries (Duarte and Paull, 2015).