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Home , Bergamot orange, Bitter orange, Micrantha (citrus), Papeda (citrus), Persian lime, Pomelo

CITRUS FRUITS

Citrus fruits may have originally come from northern Australasia, but the various of edible fruit that we know today originated in south-eastern Asia, in an area bordered by northern India, Burma and Yunnan (China). The original species were mandarin, , , and , from which all modern citrus fruits have been developed as hybrids, particularly , , , , and .

Oranges were probably originally brought to the Mediterranean from India at around the time of Alexander the Great and were taken to the by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century. The citron reached Europe during the time of classical Rome. The Latin word citrus referred to both the citron fruit and to the cypress tree, taken from the Greek word kedros, meaning cedar, the of both the tree and the fruit perceived to have a similar sharp aroma.

In modern times, Citrus fruits are the world's highest value fruit crop in terms of international trade. Most is accounted for by oranges (a high proportion of which is used to make juice) but significant quantities of mandarins, , pomeloes, and limes are also grown. Brazil, the ( and California), China, India, Mexico, and are the world's largest citrus-producing countries, while Japan, Turkey, Italy and Egypt are also large producers of mandarins (including , and satsumas).

Mandarin "Citrus reticulata" originated naturally in China and may have been named by French explorers after the orange robes of Mandarin dignitaries. Modern mandarins fall into three groups, now known as tangerines, satsumas and a third group of fruits that are inedible because they are too sour, but prized for their hardy rootstock. Most importantly, mandarin is the original parent of all types of orange. China is still the largest world producer of the true mandarin, which has a flatter shape, smoother, thinner skin, and is sweeter than the tangerine.

Pomelo "Citrus maxima", known as pomelo and pamplemousse, is a natural (non-) citrus fruit, with the appearance of a large grapefruit, native to south and south-eastern Asia. In English it has also been known as "shaddock" after the captain of an East India Company ship who introduced it to in 1696. The name "pamplemousse" comes via Dutch from the Tamil name "pampa limasu", but in many languages, including French and German, this name now means grapefruit. It is suggested that the name "pomelo" is a compound of pomme (apple) and melon.

Citron "Citrus medica" is believed to have originated on the Indian border with Burma and was brought by Alexander the Great, to be cultivated beside the Persian Gulf before it later reached Macedonia and Italy. The fruit is recorded in the ancient scriptures of both Judaism and Bhuddism and has religious significance in both cultures. Confusion is caused by the word citron being used to mean lemon in French, German, Slavic and Baltic languages. In Persian it is called "turunj", as opposed to "naranj" (), the latter name borrowed by Arabic and thus introduced into Iberia where it became the source of the word orange.

Papeda "Citrus " is native to and is the most primitive group of which includes , and bitter, less palatable fruits than other citruses. However, it is disease-resistant and frost-hardy, so of great use for root stock and breeding citrus hybrids.

Orange Unknown in the wild state, the orange is a cross between the mandarin (75%) and the pomelo (25%), hybridised over multiple generations. It is believed to have originated in southern China, north-eastern India, and perhaps south-eastern Asia, and that it was first cultivated in China around 2500 BC. Now, 4500 years later, orange trees are the most cultivated fruit trees in the world and oranges account for 70% of all citrus production.

"Citrus aurantium", the bitter or sour orange, was brought westward from China via India, perhaps as early as the 4th century BC, but certainly it was introduced by the Moors to in Spain, with large scale cultivation starting in the 10th century, then by Arab traders to Sicily and to southern Italy by the crusaders in the

Citrus fruits extracted from "Daddy Why…..?" © David Foster 2016 Page 1 of 3 11th century, where it was then grown widely for medicinal purposes. The sour orange was introduced to and Florida during the 16th century, where it now grows wild in secluded areas. The sour orange today is better known as the orange and is used for the production of essential oils, flavourings, edible solvents, herbal medicines, and in the production of (being higher in than the sweet orange). When unripe, the bitter orange (called "narthangai") is commonly used in Southern Indian cuisine, especially Tamil. "Citrus bergamia", the , is grown solely for the oil in its , used for flavouring and .

"Citrus sinensis", the sweet orange ("sinensis" meaning Chinese) is recorded in Chinese literature from 314 BC, but was unknown in the West until brought from China to the Mediterranean by Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese explorer, in 1498. It was then distributed by Portuguese and Italian merchants and the sweet orange was quickly adopted as an edible fruit, but also was considered a luxury item, becoming well known throughout Europe by the mid-17th century. As oranges are rich in C and do not spoil easily, during the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch mariners planted citrus trees on coasts along their trade routes (including southern Africa), to be collected and eaten to prevent scurvy (later British mariners also used limes, leading to the nickname "limey").

Meanwhile Spanish explorers introduced the sweet orange into the Americas. On his final voyage in 1502, Christopher Columbus may have planted the fruit in Hispaniola. Subsequent expeditions in the mid-1500s took sweet oranges to South America and Mexico, and to Florida in 1565. Spanish missionaries took orange trees to Arizona between 1707-1710, while the Franciscans did the same to California in 1769. In Louisiana, oranges were probably introduced by French explorers and orange seeds were also taken from South Africa, raised as seedlings onboard ship, and given to several chiefs on Hawaii in 1792.

The word orange derives from the Sanskrit word "naranga" and reached European languages through Persian and Arabic "naranj". From the Provencal "auranja" (or from the Italian "melarancio") the fruit became known in Old French as "pomme d'orenge" ("mel" and "pomme" both meaning fruit) and then in Late Middle English as "orange". The Old French name survives in many Slavic languages such as the Polish "pomarancza". In other modern languages, the name alludes to the Chinese origin, translated as "apple from China", such as "apelsin" in Swedish and similar names in Norwegian, Dutch ("sinaasappel") and Low German. In Puerto Rico, the Spanish name is simply "china".

As Portuguese merchants were the first to introduce the sweet orange to the West, in several modern languages the fruit is named after them, hence "portokali" in Greek and similar names in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Georgian, and most Balkan languages. In southern Italy the sweet orange is called "portogallo", in contrast to "arancia", meaning the sour orange (but in northern Italy arancia is the name for both).

Before the fruit became commonly known to the English, the colour orange was referred to as "yellow-red" (geoluread in Old English) or "red-yellow", but was renamed after the fruit, first recorded in 1512.

However the city and principality of Orange (in the Rhone valley, France) is unconnected to the fruit and was named after the Celtic water god Arausio. During the 16th century the principality was inherited by the German family of Nassau, who took the name Orange-Nassau and adopted the colour orange as their emblem. As staunch defenders of Protestantism in their role as stewards of the Dutch Republic, the princes of Orange- Nassau also gave the colour to the Dutch flag and as an emblem of Protestantism (such as the Orangemen of Ulster). Their name and the colour was later used by the originally Dutch settlers who named the Orange river after the noble family and subsequently founded the Orange Free State in South Africa.

Tangerine "Citrus tangerina" is a commercial type of mandarin, originally cultivated in Tangiers, Morocco, after being brought there by Arab traders, from where it was then imported into Florida during the early 19th century. The tangerine has a rounded shape with dark skin which is thick and pebbly. The fruit contains seed pips and has a tart taste.

Citrus fruits extracted from "Daddy Why…..?" © David Foster 2016 Page 2 of 3 "Citrus clementina" is an accidental hybrid between a mandarin and a sweet orange, grown in Algeria, (although it may have originated as the "Canton mandarin" from Guangxi or Guangdong, China), first named in 1902 after its discoverer, a French monk called Clement. Grown in California since 1909, the fruit is seedless unless accidentally cross-pollinated with other fruit. The clementine has a rounded shape with dark skin which is smooth, shiny and tight.

Satsuma "" ("unshu mikan" in Japanese, from "Wenzhou migan" in Chinese) is a type of seedless mandarin developed in Wenzhou, China in the 13th century. Jesuits first took the fruit to a Spanish plantation north of New Orleans in the 18th century and it is still grown in frost-free Louisiana. Then in 1876 it was brought direct from Satsuma province in Japan to Florida and between 1908-1911 around a million trees were imported into the southern USA. The satsuma has a flatter shape with concave top, paler skin which is loose and easy to peel. The fruit is virtually seedless and less sweet than other mandarins.

Meanwhile the fruit has been grown in South Africa since 1790, where it is called "naartjie", from the Tamil word "nartei". Satsumas are cold-hardy, and when planted in colder locations, the fruit becomes sweeter from the lower temperatures. A mature satsuma tree can survive down to -9°C (15°F) or even -11°C (12°F) for a few hours. Satsumas are also grown in Korea, South America, Croatia and around the Black Sea.

Tangelo Also known as Minneola, this fruit is an hybrid of the tangerine and the pomelo developed in the 1930s at Minneola (Florida). It has an unusual shape with a "nipple" at the stem end, loose skin, and has a tart flavour.

Lemon "Citrus limon" is an hybrid of the citron and the bitter orange, thought to have been first grown in Assam, northern Burma or China. Lemons were known in Sicily and southern Italy during the first century AD, but they were not widely cultivated. They were later introduced to Persia, then to and Egypt around 700 AD, being distributed widely throughout the Arab world and the Mediterranean region between 1000-1150. The first substantial cultivation of the lemon in Europe began in Genoa in the mid-15th century and it was then introduced to the Americas in 1493 when Christopher Columbus took lemon seeds to Hispaniola. From the 19th century, lemon trees were increasingly planted in Florida and California.

Lime "Citrus aurantiifolia" is native to south-east Asia and the name lime comes from Arabic. Its apparent path of introduction was through the Middle East to North Africa, then to Sicily and Andalusia and taken by Spanish explorers to the West Indies, including the Florida Keys, from where since 1905 it has carried the name . From the , lime cultivation spread to tropical and subtropical North America, including Mexico, Florida, and later California. "Citrus latifolia", the seedless and the the most widely cultivated lime species, is most likely derived from an hybrid of citrus aurantiifolia and the lemon.

Grapefruit "Citrus paradisi" is an hybrid originating in Barbados as an accidental cross between the sweet orange and the pomelo, both of which were introduced from Asia by Europeans in the 17th century. Originally first recorded in 1750, as the "", the current name alludes to clusters of the fruit on the tree, which often appear similar to grapes. It was introduced to Florida in 1823, where the accidental pink hybrid was discovered in 1906 and has since been used to produce the "ruby" red hybrid.

------Citrus fruits - mandarin, pomelo, citron, papeda, orange, tangerine, clementine, satsuma, lemon, lime, grapefruit

Citrus fruits extracted from "Daddy Why…..?" © David Foster 2016 Page 3 of 3