The 'Brooks' mango (also known as 'Brooks Late') is a late-season commercial mango cultivar that originated in south Florida. It is a parent of several varieties from the state.
The original tree reportedly grew from a seed of the 'Sandersha' mango that was planted on the property of a Mr. Brooks in Miami, Florida in 1910. The 'Sandersha' parentage of 'Brooks' was later supported by a 2005 pedigree analysis. The tree first fruited in 1916 and propagation began in 1924. After 'Haden', it was the second Florida cultivar to be named. 'Brooks' went on to gain some commercial acceptance and is still grown on some commercial scale in Florida and in Africa[1]. It was also a parent of several Florida mangoes, including 'Kent', 'Sensation', 'Hatcher' and probably 'Keitt'[2].
'Brooks' trees are planted in the collections of the USDA's germplasm repository in Miami, Florida[3], the University of Florida's Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, Florida[4], and the Miami-Dade Fruit and Spice Park[5], also in Homestead.
The fruit is oblong in shape and lacks a beak. The skins turns a green-yellow color when ripe. Flesh is yellow in color with a mild, sweet flavor and contains a monoembryonic seed. In Florida the fruit typically ripens from August to early October, making it a late-season cultivar there.
The trees tend to be of low vigor and do not get much over 20 feet in height and have an open canopy.
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