A modern Indian hybrid — Neelum × Dasheri — engineered for the best of both: the regular bearing of Neelum and the aroma of Dasheri, yielding a dense, fibreless, intensely sweet fruit that has won international mango-festival acclaim.
Sanskrit/Hindi for 'jasmine'. A named hybrid rather than a wild landrace — bred by crossing Neelum and Dasheri.
The Mallika — Sanskrit for jasmine — is not an old landrace but a deliberate creation: a hybrid bred in India by crossing Neelum and Dasheri. The aim was to marry Neelum's reliable, regular bearing to Dasheri's celebrated aroma, and the result has become one of the most admired modern Indian mangoes, with a following well beyond India — it has been a repeat favourite at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's International Mango Festival in Florida.
As a grafted hybrid the Mallika travels well and is grown across India and in mango collections abroad; the suggester who flagged it for this atlas notes it is especially common in Karnataka. The grafted tree stays a manageable size — happy as a dooryard tree — though, like many mangoes, it resents cool spells, with malformation a risk in the 10–15 °C range. It crops late, through June and July, extending the season past the early varieties.
A Mallika ripens to a warm reddish-yellow over a few days off the tree, reaching peak weight around the fifth day. The flesh is dense, deep saffron-orange and entirely fibreless, and the flavour is what people remember: exceptionally sweet, with clear notes of citrus, melon and honey. It is a mango that rewards a little patience — left to ripen fully, it concentrates into something close to candy.
The Mallika's firm, fibreless flesh holds its shape when sliced, making it a favourite for fresh eating and for desserts — ice cream, sorbet, smoothies — where its honeyed sweetness carries. Its late season and sturdy skin also make it a capable export mango, one of the ways this Indian hybrid has built an international reputation.