Garcinia sibeswarii - Assam Mangosteen

Assam Mangosteen is a newly described (2021) species of Garcinia. It is an evergreen, medium sized tree, up to 10 m tall, with bark greenish brown; sap milky; branches horizontal spreading, branchlets round to slightly angled, hairless. Leaves are 17-20 x 10-12 cm, ovate-oblong, dark green, shiny, leathery, hairless, pointed or tapering at base, pointed or very shortly and abruptly tapering tip, margin somewhat-wavy and entire; midribs prominent on both sides; lateral veins prominent, more than 40 pairs; leaf-stalks are 2-2.5 cm long, slender, above strap-shaped at the base. Male flowers are 4-merous, 5-10, in branch-end fascicles, 2-3 cm diameter, flower-stalk 8-12 mm long, stout; sepals are free, overlapping, round, concave, 6-8 x 3-4 mm, unequal, thinly leathery, petals free, pale yellow, ovate-round, 8-12 x 6-10 mm, concave, leathery, stamens numerous, inserted on fleshy white, 4-lobed torus, wavy on margins; anthers brownish-white, rudimentary pistil columnar, with a convex, shield-like, reddish stigma. Female flowers are 4-merous, pale greenish-yellow, solitary, at branch-ends, 1.5-3 cm diameter; flower-stalk 1-1.5 cm long; sepals free, overlapping, round, concave 6-8 x 4-5 mm, petals 4, free, overlapping in pairs, pale greenish-yellow, ovate, 8-10 x 6-8 mm, concave, leathery, membraneous on margin; ovary almost-spherical, 4-locular, pale greenish; style very short; stigma red, sticky, shield-like, convex, entire, recurved on edges. Fruits are spherical or nearly so, 8-10 cm in diameter, smooth, green, turning yellow on ripening, crowned by the disc-like remnant stigma and with the green leathery sepals at base. Seeds are 3-4, oblong, about 3 × 6 cm. Flowering: January-February. The fruit is seldom consumed by the local people. But primates such as the rhesus macaque and the rare Assamese macaque in the reserve forest devour the fruits at maturity. Assam Mangosteen is native to NE India.