The first Citrus War-- Orange and lemon

It was mentioned last time that citron (citron or citron), pomelo and wide-skinned orange are the real three elders of the citrus family.

So before explaining the "melee hybrid" of the three senators, it is necessary to introduce the citrus "hybrid military rules".

Researchers at the Sichuan Academy of Agricultural Sciences have found that the offspring of citrus hybrids conform to the following rules:

First, after hybridization, people tend to be small. In other words, the parents who are small are like them.

Second, the appearance (the shape of the fruit) will take a middle value, combined with the average level of the parents.

Third, the sugar content (sweetness) takes the middle value.

Fourth, we do not want to see, acidity will favor the more sour side. So, give up, sweet oranges can't save lemons.

This is also citron or citrate, which doesn't seem to look like the picture above. )

The first orange I came into contact with was called Guang Kan. It took me a long time to understand that it had nothing to do with oranges, so these oranges combine the characteristics of grapefruit and wide-skinned oranges.

From the "hybrid rules" we just mentioned, we can infer that limes are about the same size as oranges. As for the taste, it is obvious who is sour and who is sour. Fortunately, there are both sour and sweet between oranges and grapefruit, otherwise it would be too bad. This is probably why oranges are sour and sweet.

Limes are formed by crossing pomelo and wide-skinned oranges, while the relative "sweet oranges" are now generally considered to be a cultivation group under limes. Other features of oranges are to be expected: their peels are not as thin as wide-skinned oranges or as thick as grapefruit; they are not as easy to peel as wide-skinned oranges or as difficult as grapefruit. (there should be applause here)

So are these oranges cultivated artificially? Actually this is not so. As natural hybrids of grapefruit and broad-skinned tangerines, they showed off their fruits on the hills before the hybrid technology was discovered. Archaeological evidence shows that oranges were planted in China as early as 2500 BC. It will be a long time before oranges are known to Westerners. Around the 14th century, oranges were brought back to Europe by the Portuguese and planted along the Mediterranean coast. When Columbus visited the New World for the second time in 1493, oranges landed on the American continent and found a real promised land there. Although many sweet oranges on the market claim to be of American origin, this does not mean that their hometown is in America. This is quite similar to the story of Chinese kiwifruit returning from studying in New Zealand and turning into a "kiwi fruit" whose price has doubled.

At the same time, the low-key citron produced another kind of low-key offspring-Lai Mon. There is only an one-word difference between the names of lemons and lemons, and their characteristics are not far different, but the leaves are narrower and the flowers are smaller. It was once thought that another parent of Laimon is pomelo, but the truth may not be that simple. In addition to pomelo, wide-peeled orange and arrow leaf orange may have participated in the "lemon-making movement". What an unbearable historical ethics!

At this point, the chaos of the citrus family is beginning to emerge, at least orange, the most important citrus fruit in the world. But the chaos is far from over. Just before oranges rushed out of Asia and into the world, the second wave of natural hybridization began again.

Advance notice:

The second Citrus War-- Grapefruit, Orange and Lemon