By Dr. R Sudarshan
Some 3 to 4 years ago, we drove into the jungle near Sirsi to meet Anant at his village home, tucked in a thick canopy. A self-appointed Appe Midi (Here's the link to know what it's: https://bit.ly/3jeI6bY) mango conservator, he set out daily into the forest, found wild mango trees, and grafted them with the exclusive Appe Midi strain. He did that in thousands over the time because, in the past 25 years, some 5000 wild Appe Midi trees had not fruited in the entire Aghanashini river basin, the homeland of this aromatic species. And the Appe Midi lovers had slid into a deepening doubt if the species was on its way out of the planet.
Anant grafted and gave us a few Appe Midi saplings. Just 3 survived on our farm over these years and have been growing quite well. We proudly break a leaf for every visitor to give a glimpse of its heavenly aroma.
We anxiously wait for the plants to flower every spring but haven't seen any signs as yet. We know not if they will ever fruit at all on our landscape. But it is one of our greatest greed to see a few fruits bursting out of the body branch of the plant.
Like an imprisoned convict counting days for a release, we count days for another season to emerge, so we could expect a fruit. We haven't borne such anxiety for any other plant ever on the farm.
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