Edward

The 'Edward' mango is a named mango cultivar that originated in south Florida. History During the early 20th century, Edward Simmonds was the head of the USDA's Plant Introduction Station in Miami, Florida. Due to the problems encountered with Indian-descended mango cultivars in Florida relating to their poor disease resistance and unreliable bearing habits, Simmonds began a mango breeding program in the 1920s where he sought to cross several cultivars of Indian descent with cultivars of southeast Asian origin. Simmonds' hope was to develop hybrid varieties that would take on the best characteristics of both parents, with color and flavor of the Indian line and the flavor and disease resistance of the southeast Asian mangoes. One of the results of the project was reportedly a Haden × Carabao (or Philippine-type mango) cross, grown on Simmonds private residence in Miami. The resulting fruit, later named Edward after Edward Simmonds, was found to have outstanding eating qualities and was named and described by David Sturrock in the late 1930s It was published in 1944, and commercial propagation began about 1948. While generally agreed to have outstanding flavor and above average disease resistance, Edward proved to be a poor producer in Florida despite consistent crops. The color of the fruit was not as outstanding as its parent Haden either. This limited the cultivar as a commercially grown mango for production purposes, though the variety remained popular as a dooryard tree for home growing.