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{{Taxobox
| color = lightgreen
| name = Mamoncillo
| image = Melicoccus bijugatus.jpg
| image_width = 240px
| image_caption = Mamoncillo leaf and fruit
| regnum = [[Plant]]ae
| divisio = [[Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta]]
| classis = [[Dicotyledon|Magnoliopsida]]
| ordo = [[Sapindales]]
| familia = [[Sapindaceae]]
| genus = ''[[Melicoccus]]''
| species = '''''M. bijugatus'''''
| binomial = ''Melicoccus bijugatus''
| binomial_authority = [[Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin|Jacq.]]
}}

The '''mamoncillo''' (''Melicoccus bijugatus''), also known as the '''mamón''' (although the word is considered obscene in some Spanish speaking countries), '''chenet''', '''guaya''', '''gnep''', '''ginep''', '''skinnip''' (in [[Saint Kitts and Nevis | St. Kitts]]) '''genip''', '''guinep''', '''ginnip''', '''kenèp''' (in [[Haiti]]), '''quenepa''' (in [[Puerto Rico]]), '''akee''' (in [[Barbados]]), '''Spanish lime''', or '''limoncillo''',  is a [[fruit]]-bearing [[tree]] in the soapberry family [[Sapindaceae]], native or naturalised over a wide area of the American tropics including [[Central America]], [[Colombia]], [[Venezuela]], [[Suriname]] and the [[Caribbean]]. It is a large tree growing up to 30 m high. The [[leaf|leaves]] are alternate, 8–5 cm long, pinnate with 4 or 6 opposite leaflets (no terminal leaflet), each leaflet 5–10 cm long.

It is grown and cultivated for its ovoid, green fruit, which grow in bunches. The fruit ripen during the summer. The fruit, similar to that of the related [[lychee]], is classified as a [[drupe]]. A mamoncillo fruit has a tight and thin but rigid layer of skin, traditionally cracked by the teeth. Inside the skin is the tart, tangy, cream pulp of the fruit, which is sucked by putting the whole fruit inside the mouth (the seed takes most of the volume of what is inside the skin). The stains on clothing from the pulp take a brownish color and cannot be removed; the stains are permanent. 

[[Image:mamoncillo.jpg|left|thumb|Fruit]]
Each mamoncillo fruit has a large [[seed]] inside, the same ovoid shape as the fruit itself. Mamoncillo seeds can be roasted and eaten just like [[sunflower]] seeds or [[chestnut]]s.

The mamoncillo has small, greenish-white, fragrant [[flower]]s in [[panicle]]s. They begin to blossom from the branch tips when the rainy season begins. The mamoncillo is an example of a polygamous plant, producing bisexual flowers as well as flowers that are exclusively male or exclusively female. Occasionally, a bisexual flower will have a "dud" (sterile) anther, which limits the number of fruits produced from self-pollination when cross-pollination is possible.

Being tropical, the mamoncillo prefers warmer temperatures. Its leaves can be damaged if the temperature hits freezing point, with serious damage occurring below -4°C. Gardeners of mamoncillos should occasionally give their plants heavy watering during the summer and propagate via seeds; grafting is also used to propagate [[cultivar]]s.

The mamoncillo is also commonly planted along roadsides as an ornamental tree.

According to Caribbean folk wisdom (except in Jamaica), girls learn the art of kissing by eating the sweet flesh of this fruit {{Fact|date=February 2007}}.  

==See also==
* [[Ackee]]
* [[List of culinary fruits]]
* [[Longan]]
* [[Lychee]]
* [[Rambutan]]
* For the member of the [[honeysuckle]] (''lonicera'') family, sometimes called "honeyberry" by nursey catalogs, see [[Lonicera caerulea]].

==References and external links==
{{Commons|Melicoccus bijugatus}}
* [http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mamoncillo.html Fruits of Warm Climates: Mamoncillo]
* [http://www.montosogardens.com/melicoccus_bijugatus.htm Melicoccus bijugatus (Sapindaceae)]
* [http://www.crfg.org/photocon/1999-3d.jpg Image of fruit]
* [http://www.viequesvisitor.com/natural-vieques/quenepa.html Description of Vieques quenepa trees and recipe for an alcoholic drink called bilí]

[[Category:Sapindaceae]]
[[Category:Fruit]]
[[Category:Edible nuts and seeds]]
[[Category:Trees of Colombia]]
[[Category:Trees of Guyana]]
[[Category:Trees of Suriname]]
[[Category:Trees of Trinidad and Tobago]]
[[Category:Trees of Venezuela]]
[[Category:Trees of Central America]]
[[Category:Trees of the Caribbean]]