This question is for kama'aina and longtime residents of the Islands: How many varieties of mango can you name?

Bet you didn't run out of fingers and toes. Most us know only "common," "Chinese," Haden, Pirie, Fairchild and maybe newer types, such as Keitt or Tommy Atkins.

As we enter peak mango season (now through December), the Moana Surfrider is preparing to celebrate this sunshiny fruit with a mango festival July 11 to 31, including special menu items and mango drinks in the cocktail lounges. Click here for more information.

Mangoes also are becoming plentiful in farmers markets and on backyard trees and in grocery stores — though, due to untimely winds that stripped some trees of blossoms, and other weather problems, it won't be a bumper year, and the season may be late, bleeding over into fall, according to grower Mark Suiso.

In the Islands, more than 130 varieties have been recorded, some of them crossbred varieties, some descended from the first mangoes to arrive here in the 1800s, according to Wayne Nishijima of the University of Hawai'i College of Tropical Agriculture.

And all are different, with textures ranging from custard-smooth to tooth-tangling stringy, and flavors from sugar-sweet to astringent and aromatic.

"There are over 3,000 cultivars in the world. ... We LOVE nearly all of the ones we have tasted, and the flavors are so distinct. Some are super-sweet with much juice, some are spicy and less moist, most grafted ones have lower fiber content, so they are less stringy," wrote grower and grafting expert Marla Hunter of E Ke Nui farm in an e-mail from Na'alehu, where she farms with her husband, Pete.

ASIAN ROOTS

Many mango varieties have romantic names — Paris, Sensation, Golden Glow. Others recall people who discovered or developed the hybrid, or popularized it: Mapulehu (from Joe Welch Mapulehu, who bred the trees on Moloka'i from an Indian variety); Gouveia (named for Ruth Gouveia of St. Louis Heights); Rapoza (named for nurseryman Herbert Rapoza, who worked on the variety at a UH experimental station); Ah Ping (from Chun Ah Ping, who raised mangoes on Moloka'i), explained Mark Suiso who, with his wife, Candy, operates Makaha Mangoes on O'ahu.

But the mango is not native to Hawai'i. Nor was it brought here by Hawaiians. Rather, it made its way here from its original home, India, and its adopted home, China (it's been there since the sixth century A.D.), with stops along the way in places like the Philippines.

The first mango seeds or cuttings are said to have arrived in the 1820s, though there are conflicting stories about just how or with whom. It is known that the prolific amateur botanist Don Francisco de Paula y Marin, a royal adviser whose gardens, orchards and vineyards flourished in Nu'uanu, received mango plants from visiting ships — both common and Chinese mangoes — and planted them.

They did well; mangoes like bright sun and heat. (Hunter said that on the Big Island, vog, heavy with particulate matter that shields the sun, is an increasing problem for mango growers, depressing yields.)

The Haden, the best-known and most popular of mango varieties, arrived from Florida around 1930, Suiso said, quoting a 1958 University of Hawai'i Extension Service circular on mangoes.

But this fruit, so identified now with Polynesian life, like the pineapple, would have been unrecognizable to pre-contact Hawaiians.

According to the most recent statistics available — for 2007 — Hawai'i produces about 690,000 pounds a year of mangoes commercially, making it one of the top three tropical fruits grown here. But, said Suiso, most mangoes still find their way into kitchens through the usual route: the back door, from the owners' or neighbors' trees. We also import about 215,000 pounds, mostly from Mexico and South America. Different seasons and varieties help make mango a year-round fruit.

What to do with all this mango largess?

WAYS TO USE MANGO

Hunter freezes mango (green or ripe, which have different uses) in gallon zip-closure bags in a freezer they maintain solely for this purpose. "The frozen ones taste somewhat like canned peaches from my childhood in Colorado," wrote Hunter. She makes cobblers, mixes mango with other fruit as a salad and is known for her mango salsa. To make this dish, she combines tiny cubes of ripe-but-firm mango with ginger and lime juices, minced cilantro and spices, often jalapeno for those who can handle the heat — it can be served over a dish or as a chip dip. She freezes this in 8-ounce tubs for use year-round.

In recent weeks, teams of volunteers from Punahou School and other organizations have been fanning out through old neighborhoods looking for mango trees laden with green fruit and seeking permission to pick them. The fruit will become an Island tradition: chutney, often sold as a fundraiser, most notably by Punahou, where the condiment routinely sells out during the annual carnival.

Chutney is closely associated here with Caucasian kama'aina, the dish most society girls learned at their mothers' knees, often the choice of nervous brides giving their first dinner parties: chicken curry, made with a white sauce based on coconut milk and served with at least a half-dozen garnishes, one of which is invariably homemade mango chutney. Old-style recipes suggest making the sauce well in advance, cooking it two or three times and even straining it to make it velvet smooth.

What else to do with mango? Jelly or jam it. Bake slices of fresh mango with sweet or red onion, sweet peppers and fish or chicken. Make mango upside-down cake, arranging fingers of mango in a spiral atop the batter, with dried cranberries for color accents. Puree fresh mango into a smooth sauce to serve on top of desserts (with lime or lemon; with sour cream or cream, even with smooth tofu). Make a dip with pureed mango and cream cheese. Make mango custard or pudding or ice cream.

In short, make merry with mango while you may.