A mango is a stone fruit produced from numerous species of tropical trees belonging to the flowering plant genus Mangifera, cultivated mostly for their edible fruit. Most of these species are found in nature as wild mangoes.
The ripe fruit varies according to cultivar in size, shape, color, sweetness, and eating quality. Depending on cultivar, fruits are variously yellow, orange, red, or green. The fruit has a single flat, oblong pit that can be fibrous or hairy on the surface, and does not separate easily from the pulp.
The fruits may be somewhat round, oval, or kidney-shaped, ranging from 5–25 centimetres in length and from 140 grams to 2 kilograms in weight per individual fruit.
The skin is leather-like, waxy, smooth, and fragrant, with color ranging from green to yellow, yellow-orange, yellow-red, or blushed with various shades of red, purple, pink or yellow when fully ripe.
Ripe intact mangoes give off a distinctive resinous, sweet smell. Inside the pit 1–2 mm thick is a thin lining covering a single seed, 4–7 cm long. Mangoes have recalcitrant seeds which do not survive freezing and drying. Mango trees grow readily from seeds, with germination success highest when seeds are obtained from mature fruits.
