Description

Have you ever tasted musk fruit? If so, you could be one of the lucky ones, considering that this endemic fruit from the island of Borneo is very hard to find.
Kasturi fruit is also known as Kasturi mango (Mangifera casturi) or Kalimantan mango. Kasturi mango is an endemic plant typical of South Kalimantan whose existence is threatened with extinction. The taxon population tends to decrease, both in terms of the number of individuals, population and genetic diversity. The status of the scarcity of this fruit was analyzed using the categories and criteria of endangered plants according to the IUCN Red List Categories 30 November 1994.

An assessment team from the World Conservation Monitoring Center in 1998 determined Mangifera casturi to be in the extinct category in the wild. This mango is known to only live and grow naturally in forest gardens and or other conservation areas, but is no longer found in its natural habitat.
The shape of the tree is similar to the common mango (Mangifera indica), namely the plants can reach a height of 25-50 meters, a trunk diameter of 40-115 cm, and shady. When cut, the bark will release sap which is clear at first, then becomes reddish and black within a few hours.

However, unlike regular mangoes, Kasturi fruit has a small round or elliptical shape. The weight per fruit is only about 60-85 grams, 4.5-5.5 cm long, and 3.5-3.9 cm wide.

The fruit flesh is also stringy, the texture of the fruit is rather rough, the taste is sweet, slightly sour, and has a distinctive aroma. Another drawback of the Kasturi mango is that the flesh is not thick because the seeds are quite large.

taxonomy
Division: Tracheophyta
Subdivision: Spermatophytes
Order: Sapindales
Family : Anacardiaceae
Genus: Mangifera
Species: Mangifera casturi Kosterm., 1993