Maya

A round red Israeli mango with classic sweetness and familiar tropical flavor.

How it tastes

juicy · Low fibre

Texture: juicy
Fibre: Low fibre
Eating styles: Get sticky
Harvest: See regional calendars

How to enjoy it

Maya brings a classic mango flavour from Israel. The round cheeks suit fresh slices, but the red-yellow skin still needs the usual check for softness and scent.

Open over a bowl to catch the juice. Scoop the ripe flesh; strain blended pulp if you prefer less fibre.

When it is ripe

Look for a full red-yellow color, fragrance, and moderate give.

Flavour notes are subjective. Ripeness, handling and growing conditions change the fruit.

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Names, history & sources

Recorded names

A shared name does not by itself establish an identical cultivar. Place, language and source matter.

Maya

Named by Hanan Oppenheimer for his wife Maya.

Queen Maya

A market description used by Israeli exporter Miriam Shoham.

Maya mango

Existing catalogue label. It may be an alternate name, translation or market nickname; it is not an assertion of genetic identity.

A wife’s name in the research orchard

Documented history: consult the claims and qualifications in the cited sources.

On a visit to Rehovot, horticulturist Wilson Popenoe saw a local mango seedling that impressed him. His 1959 account records that Hanan Oppenheimer had named it Maya in honour of his wife. A personal dedication had become part of the research orchard.

Popenoe considered Haden a likely pollen parent, a useful reminder that even an eyewitness account can leave the pedigree uncertain. Later Israeli agricultural records describe Maya as an established local cultivar. Its first story is wonderfully direct: a horticulturist found a mango worth keeping and gave it the name of someone he loved.

Read the full story

Places in this record

Country associations alone do not establish botanical origin.

Israel
Catalogue association
Associated place in the tasting catalogue; this does not establish botanical origin.
Italy
Recorded cultivation
Recorded alongside Keitt in an orchard sampled in 2025.
- Giordano et al.: cultivar records from four Sicilian mango orchards (2025)
Ficarazzi, Sicily, Italy
Recorded cultivation
Recorded alongside Keitt in an orchard sampled in 2025.
- Giordano et al.: cultivar records from four Sicilian mango orchards (2025)
Rehovot, Israel
A place in the story
Setting of “A wife’s name in the research orchard”. Read the story for its evidence and qualifications.

Harvest calendars by growing place. These regional calendars do not specify this cultivar’s exact season.

Sources

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