PubMed · 2026-05-22
When mango trees lose nearly all their leaves during fruit development, they drain stored sugars and starch from their trunks and roots to keep fruit growing — but the following season's harvest still suffers, revealing a lasting reproductive cost to severe leaf loss.
Near-complete defoliation (retaining only 40 leaves, under 0.5% of normal) during rapid fruit growth reduced whole-tree fruit carbohydrate content to one-third of control trees by the end of the first season.
In the second season after defoliation, carbohydrate concentrations in fruit recovered to normal levels, but fewer trees fruited and overall yields remained lower, confirming a lasting reproductive impact beyond the immediate stress year.
Organ-specific reserve roles were hierarchical: trunks and coarse roots acted as long-term starch banks (deeply depleted then strongly rebuilt), branches and medium roots as intermediate buffers, and shoots, leaves, and pedicels as rapid short-term sugar stores.
