Pantin

Pantin is the cultivar that built Florida's mamey industry, accounting for roughly 95% of commercial acreage in Miami-Dade and, with Magana, some 95-98% of all mamey planted in the state. The parent tree was a chance seedling found growing near a fire station in Key West, reputedly from Cuban seed carried north by 19th-century emigres, and it circulated for decades simply as the 'Key West mamey'. Eugenio Pantin began grafting it in the early 1950s and planted a small commercial block in Miami-Dade; after his death in 1963 nurseryman Lawrence Zill attached the family name to the clone, and both names remain in nursery trade today. UF/IFAS rates its flavour 'excellent', at the top of its cultivar table, and lists it among the handful recommended for Florida home landscapes. In a five-year Puerto Rico cultivar trial it combined relatively high yield with above-average soluble solids and a fruit size well suited to both domestic and export markets. It is the benchmark against which growers judge every other mamey.