Mangosteen is "the Queen" of tropical fruits. The flavor of the Mangosteen fruit can be best described as sweet, mildly tangy, fragrant, and delicious. Mangosteen plant is an evergreen, upright tree reaching about 20- 60 ft. in height. It commonly found in tropical rainforests of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia,            Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. Fresh purple fruits can be available in the markets from June    until October.
Each tree bears deep-purple, round shape fruits capped with light green calyx at the stem end.             Completely matured fruit measures about 3-7 cm in diameter. Its tough outer rind is about 7-12 mm      thick which contains bitter yellow latex that stains clothes black. Internally; it features 4 to 10 juicy, snow-white, soft, fleshy, triangular segments as in oranges. Each segment may carry 1-4 off-white colored    seeds. Seeds are inedible and bitter in taste.
Originally from Malaysia and Sumatra, mangosteens are fondly referred to as the “Queen of the Tropical Fruits.” Indicating how prized this unique fruit is.
According to folklore, Queen Victoria was once made aware of a divinely delicious purple fruit, which     grew in faraway Southeast Asia. The Queen made a declaration that she would bestow a knighthood   on anyone who would bring it to her. Apparently all efforts failed as in the 19th century, the journey from Southeast Asia took months and the delicate nature of the mangosteen meant it invariably spoiled         before reaching Britain.
Mangosteens were introduced to Australia in the 1940s; however attempts to grow the fruit in NSW and southern Queensland were not initially successful. It was not until the 1970s when new cultivators were imported and fruit was grown in the tropical north of Queensland that mangosteens were first grown in commercial quantities and available through your local greengrocer.
Slow growing, mangosteen trees can take 8 or more years before they start bearing fruit. The trees grow best in wet tropical climates so today most fruit grown in Australia comes from Far North Queensland or around Darwin.