DESCRIPTIVE TERMS FOR CITRUS PART I AND PART II
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Citrus sinensis
FAMILY: Rutaceae
The edible citrus freely hybridize among them selves. Infraspecific, bigeneric, and trigeneric crosses have been made by man and there is strong evidence that many of the common forms of edible citrus are hybrid in nature. Man has for thousands of years cultivated citrus and undoubtably has maintained in culture many naturally occurring hybrids that he has deemed of interest. For years taxonomists have been baffled in trying to assign species names and classify the citrus that are living today. Many forms of edible citrus do not exist in the wild and much difficulty has been encountered in trying to decide what are naturally occurring true species and what is a hybrid.
Citrus are peculiar in that a great number of edible varieties have the ability to reproduce asexually by forming in a seed one to many nucellar embryos (poly-embryony) rather than a single sexually produced embryo derived from the fusion of pollen nuclei and egg nuclei. These nucellar embryos are, because of the asexual process that formed them, essentially identical to the seed parent that produced them even if the flower was pollinated by another variety. Pollination may result in a zygotic embryo among the numerous nucellar embryos or it may never form or be squeezed out by the nucellar embryos. The ability of citrus to freely hybridize coupled with the frequent occurrence of polyembryony has resulted in numerous clones being perpetuated by nucellar embryony. Citrus polyembryony and the frequent hybridization has confounded taxonomists for years in their attempt to determine the number of naturally occurring species of citrus.
Because citrus hybrids are so easily formed man has devised various terms to identify the progeny of crosses. Although these terms are defined in The Citrus Industry, Vol. 1 (1967) [and a few in other publications, see references below] the fact that these volumes are out of print and consequently not freely available to all suggested to the editor that relisting them with definitions would be of use to citrus enthusiasts and to those referring to Citrus literature and lists of citrus in the various variety collections: e.g. Rio Farms (Monte Alto, TX), Riverside, CA, and Winterhaven, FL.
Descriptive
These names have no taxonomic status and are used only to describe citrus hybrids. There is clearly overlap in some of the usages e.g. Mandalo, Satsumelo and Tangelo all describe mandarin X grapefruit (or pummelo) crosses. I propose Mandaquat and Satsumaquat for hybrids that do not fit in previous designations.
References
Kennedy, C. T. 1992a. The Hardy Citrus of Texas. Fruit Gardner. 24(1):11-14.
Kennedy, C. T. 1992b. The Hardy Citrus of Texas. Fruit Gardner. 24(2): 12-16.
Moore, PW. 19B7. Announcing the new citrus hybrid, "Mandalo". Indoor Citrus & Rare Fruit Soc. 21 :10-12.
Reuther. Walter L.D. Batchelor and H. J. Webber (eds.) 1967. The Citrus Industry, Vol.1, History, World Distribution, Botany and Varieties, i-xvi, 1-611. Univ. Calif. Press. Berkeley, CA.
| Cicitrange | Poncirus trifoliata X citranqe |
| Citemple | Poncirus trifoliata X Temple tangor; the prefix Ci- is frequently added to the name of a citrus variety and Ci-indicates this cross has P. trifoliata as one of the parents; the literature is full of hybrid names formed of various contractions of varietal names; for examples see Kennedy (1992a,b). |
| Citradia | Poncirus trifoliata X Citrus aurantium. |
| Citrandarin | Poncirus trifoliata X Citrus reticulata. |
| Citrange | Poncirus trifoliata X Citrus sinensis. |
| Citrangedin | Citrange X (Fortunella sp.? X Citrus reticulata var.austera or Calamondin). |
| Citrangequat | citrange X Fortunella sp. |
| Citrangeremo | citrange X Eremocitrus glauca. |
| Citrangor | citrange X Citrus sinensis. |
| Citremon | Poncirus trifoliata X Citrus limon. |
| Citrumelo | Poncirus trifoliata X Citrus paradisi. |
| Citrumquat | Poncirus trifoliata X Fortunella japonica or F. margarita. |
| Eremoradia | Eremocitrus glauca X Citrus aurantium. |
| Eremorange | Eremocitrus glauca X Citrus sinensis. |
| Eremolemon | Eremocitrus glauca X Citrus lemon (or Meyer lemon, also thought to be the hybrid Citrus limon X Citrus sinensis). |
| Faustrimedin | Microcitrus australica X (Fortunella sp. X Citrus reticulata var. austera. |
| Ichandarin | Citrus ichangensis X Citrus reticulata or satsuma. |
| Limequat | Citrus aurantifolia X Fortunella sp. |
| Lemonange | Citrus limon X Citrus sinensis. |
| Lemonime | Citrus limon X Citrus aurantifolia. |
| Lemonquat | Citrus limon X Fortunella sp.Some naturally occurring hybrids designated as lemonquats are more likely mandaquats as very little evidence is present for the lemon as parent of the hybrid. |
| Limandarin | Citrus limon X Citrus reticulata. |
| Mandalo | Citrus reticulata X Citrus grandis; see Moore, 1987. |
| Mandaquat | Citrus reticulata X Fortunella sp. e.g. Sunquat. |
| Orangelo | Citrus sinensis X Citrus paradisi. |
| Orangequat | Citrus unshiu or satsuma X (Meiwa or Fortunella japonica X F.margarita). Should be called a Satsumaquat as Citrus unshiu, the satsuma, was involved and Citrus sinensis, the orange, was not involved. |
| Procimequat | Fortunella hindsii X Citrus aurantifolia or Mexican lime X Fortunella japonica). |
| Satsumaquat | Citrus unshiu X Fortunella sp. A more correct name for the Nippon "orangequat". |
| Satsumelo | Citrus unshiu or satsuma X Citrus paradisi. |
| Segentrange | Second generation citrange or F2 citranges. |
| Tangelo | Citrus reticulata X Citrus paradisi. Sometimes tangelo is used to designate a mandarin X pummelo or Citrus grandis. |
| Tangelolo | Tangelo X Citrus paradisi. |
| Tangor | Citrus reticulata X Citrus sinensis. |
The following less commonly used hybrid names supplement the above list.
Faustrime and Kumandarin occur in Barrett and Rhodes, 1976, p.109, and in Vines, 1960, p.588, respectively. Limelo and oranguma are mentioned in Traub and Robinson, 1937, pp.759 and 760. All others can be found in Webber and Batchelor, 1943. Oramon, Orange Lemon and orangemon are alternate names for Citrus sinensis X Citrus limon hybrids. Webber and Batchelor used oramon more frequently than the other two.
Tangemon was used by Webber and Batchelor for Citrus nobilis (King mandarin) X Citrus limon, tangerine X lemon, Citrus unshiu (satsuma) X Citrus limon and Citrus reticulata (Dancy tangerine) X Citrus limon. This usage makes Tangemon a generic term for any mandarin X lemon. However they do propose prefixes Mand-, Satsum- , Siam-, and Tang- to indicate, respectively, the parentage of each of the four commercially important mandarin species recognized by Hodgson (1967, p.500): Citrus deliciosa (willow leaf or Mediterranean mandarin), Citrus unshiu (satsuma mandarin), Citrus nobilis (King mandarin or King of Siam), and Citrus reticulata (common mandarin).
| Faustrime | Microcitrus australica X Citrus aurantifolia. This is a variant of the name Faustrimedin, however it is inappropriate in that the letter "F" represents the kumquat genus Fortunella and there is no kumquat parentage in the Faustrime hybrid. Dropping the "F" would clarify this hybrid's parentage. |
| Ichandarin | Citrus ichangensis X Citrus unshiu satsuma. Originally the satsuma parent was listed as Citrus reticulata however the satsuma mandarins are currently separated from other mandarins in the species, Citrus unshiu, while the common mandarins are referred to Citrus reticulata. |
| Kumandarin | Fortunella spp. X Citrus reticulata. |
| Lemandarin | Citrus limon X Citrus reticulata. |
| Lemelo | Citrus limon X Citrus paradisi. |
| Mandelo | Citrus deliciosa (narrow leaf mandarin) X Citrus paradisi. |
| Oramon | Citrus sinensis X Citrus limon. |
| Orange Lemon | Citrus sinensis X Citrus limon. |
| Orangemon | Citrus sinensis X Citrus limon. |
| Oranguma | Citrus sinensis X Citrus unshiu. |
| Siamor | Citrus nobilis (King of Siam mandarin) X Citrus sinensis. |
| Tangemon | tangerine X Citrus limon. |
| Limelo | Citrus aurantifolia X Citrus paradisi. |
References
Barrett, H.C. and A.M. Rhodes. A numerical taxonomic study of affinity relationships in cultivated Citrus and its close relatives. Systematic Botany, 1(2): 105-136.
Hodgson, R.W. 1967. Chapter 4, Horticultural Varieties of Citrus, In: The Citrus Industry, Vol.1, History, World Distribution, Botany and Varieties, pp.431-591. Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley.
Traub, H.P. and T.R. Robinson. 1937. Improvement of subtropical fruit crops: Citrus. In: U. S. Dept. Agric., Year Book of Agriculture, 1937, pp.749-826.
Vines, R.A. 1960. Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines of the Southwest. pp.i-xii,1-1104. Univ. Texas Press, Austin.
Webber, H.J. and L.D. Batchelor. 1943. The Citrus Industry, Vol.1 History, Botany and Breeding. pp. i-xx, 1-1028. Univ. Calif. Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.
DATE: July 1994
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