Simmonds

This mango was a cross between Haden and Phillipine from a hybrid project conducted by Edward Simmonds in Miami, FL during the 1920s.

 

Simmonds had sought to cross Indian-descended mangos with southeast Asian cultivars to produce something that combined their respective eating qualities, but possessed the fungal resistance of the southeast Asian mangos. The first written description appears in the notes of David Fairchild in the early 1930s. This particular mango was given the name 'Simmonds' by David Sturrock, who rescued the budwood after Simmonds death in the 1930s and grafted and described it. 

 

The fruit are ovately shaped, yellow developing some red/pink tint with good sun exposure. The flesh is yellow, firm, fiberless, and contains a small polyembryonic seed. The fruit has good eating quality with some character from the Philippine-Carabao, with some acid notes from the classic flavor group giving it a defined orange/citrus quality.

 

It is highly resistant to anthracnose and flowers and sets fruit prolifically. Unfortunately, we have found Simmonds fruit to be highly prone to Neofusicoccum and Phomopsis rotting fungi and have lost large percentages of its crops to these diseases over the last several years.

 

Simmonds never received widespread propagation unlike its sibling the Edward, and few of the trees remain in south Florida. 

 

We have a very old specimen that was planted on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, along with a smaller tree planted a few years ago. The old tree was cut back to a stump at the end of the 2018 season and later died. The smaller tree is still in production. It has a spreading growth habit with open canopy, and is moderately vigorous. The leaves are distinctive and fat, similar to the leaves of Mangifera Lalijiwa.

 

Simmonds is a mid-season cultivar ripening from late June through July.