The earliest known successful introduction of mango to the New World was to Bahia in Brazil about 1700 with plantings elsewhere along the Brazilian coast soon after. Perhaps seed was brought from West Africa; the brief viability of mango seed would have seen enough to withstand fast Trade Wind passage. If introduction was from Indian Ocean, young growing tree must have been transported. Such transported is known to have been attempted before 1700 by British East India ships returning home; in the 1690s young mango trees were deposited by them in Barbados and also taken to England for hothouse culture. Nothing came of this particular effort, but in 1742s the mango was successfully introduced to Barbados from Rio de Janeiro. Soon other direct introductions to the West Indies were made from Indian Ocean.
In the latter half of the 18th century, British and French colonial botanical gardens played a leading role in mango introduction, Mango trees, along with East Indian spice trees, were planted in the St. Vincent botanical garden when it was started in 1766. The famous French botanical gardens on the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Reunion relayed Indian mango cultivars to Martinique and other West Indian colonies form 1760. In 18782, a French ship bound for St. Dominique with mango seedlings form Indian Ocean was captured by the British, and the trees diverted to their botanical garden in St. Vincent and Jamaica. Mango trees were soon growing on sugar plantation and around village on many other West India islands.Meanwhile, a quite separate introduction had taken place across the pacific from Philippines to Mexico. The date is uncertain, but it was not very early. Mangoes were not grown around Manila until over a century after trade with Mexico began, nor were they grown in Mexico until late in the 18th century when Mexico acquired, under the name of mango of Manila, the unusual apomictic variety grown in the Philippines and Guam.
In the late 19th and the 20th century, there have been innumerable exchanges of mango cultivars in a worldwide network of botanical gardens, experiment stations and commercial growers.
Introduction of mango to the New World
