Bush mango

What it is

Bush mango is Irvingia gabonensis. The broadly oval fruit is about 5–7.5 cm (2–3 in) with fibrous flesh around a large seed. The pulp is eaten fresh or made into a fruit drink or jam; the kernel inside the seed is dried and ground for sauces.

Another tree, Irvingia wombolu, shares the bush-mango name. Its pulp is bitter and inedible. The sweet flesh belongs to I. gabonensis; both trees supply kernels used to thicken soups and stews.

Where it comes from

Its home is the humid forest belt of West and Central Africa, from western Nigeria east to the Central African Republic, and south to Cabinda in Angola and western DR Congo. People plant it in southwestern Nigeria and southern Cameroon, as well as Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin.

How it's eaten where it grows

In Nigeria, ground kernels go into ogbono soup, a thick soup with meat and fish. Its stretchy texture makes it a draw soup: it clings to the piece of pounded yam or fufu used to scoop it up.

Dika bread keeps the kernels for the whole year: they are dried, roasted and ground, and the paste is set in a tin until it cools into a solid cake. Well dried, it keeps for more than a year, and in Gabon it is sold in cakes of 100 g to 5 kg. The fresh fruit has a separate life, eaten as it is or made into juice, jelly, jam and wine.

How it's grown

The tree reaches 15–40 m (49–131 ft) in dense, moist lowland forest, usually at 200–500 m (660–1,640 ft) where the mean temperature is 25–32 °C (77–90 °F). It grows well in freely draining, acidic soil. Farmers also keep it above cocoa and coffee as a shade tree.

Wild trees start fruiting at 10–15 years old, but planted trees can begin after four. Most of the harvest is gathered from the ground beneath the tree.

When and where you'll find it

In Nigeria, fruiting usually runs from April to July, with another season in September and October. Fresh fruit is traded only locally. Dried kernels travel farther, between West and Central African countries and to Europe.

In African groceries, ground ogbono can also be labelled agbono, apon, etima, dika or odika.