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Mutant Citrus Invades Gourmet Garage

By Robert Sietsema, Tuesday, Feb. 2 2010 @ 8:00AM


Hidden among the pink grapefruit and key limes, this strange-looking bird.

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has always specialized in weird citrus. It was there that I first spotted the "hand of Buddha" orange, which is all orange skin and scraggly extrusions, a source of zest, but no sort of hand-fruit. But yesterday, another oddball orange-colored item appeared that I couldn't identify, and--wouldn't you know it--there was no identifying label, nor could the employees of the store tell me what it was.

These orange-colored citrus fruits had a nib at one end, and were elongated. They ranged in length from two to three inches and had a thin peel, which was exceedingly fragrant, like orange blossoms. But the fruit proved disappointing. It was so tart that my face screwed up into a grimace when I tasted it.

What could it be? I wondered. But a little googling led me to a tentative answer. If you can confirm or deny my identification, please do.


A comparison of the mystery fruit next to a common clementine (itself a product of genetic manipulation).

The fruit appears to be an orangequat--a cross between a juice orange and a kumquat. Why some botanist would want to do this is beyond me, except that the skin is sweeter than usual, and the flesh more sour. So sour, in fact, as to be inedible, but it might make a good braise, and the sweeter zest might be good in a cake or something.

Here's the passage I copied from

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"Orangequat - A cross between a Kumquat and a Orange. It has a sweet rind and slightly bitter pulp like a Kumquat but is quite a bit larger with a distinctly orange flavor."

And here's the text from

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"NIPPON ORANGEQUAT Orangequats are a hybrid between oranges and kumquats. They are eaten in the same way as a kumquat (skin and all). Orangequats are larger, with a thick, tender sweet skin and a juicy, sour center. The trees are extremely cold hardy and small, making them an ideal container or hedge plant. Self fertile."

The title is so wrong!
These are not mutants, these are hybrids!!!
just because it doesn't look like an orange, a lemon, a grapefruit, a lime nor a mandarin the uninformed reporters are spreading bad naming on the general uninformed public as well.

Now what will stick to the minds of the public? That my calamondins kumquats finger limes are all mutants?

To tell you technically, the Famous Washington Navel is in fact a mutant of the original sweet navel oranges. And so is the cara Cara which is a mutant of Washington navel.

It is unfair to call naturally occuring hybrids of citruses as mutants. There is widespread ignorance in most reporters.

It's the Village Voice, Joe. Not exactly a paragon of journalistic recitude.

Still, it is a rare mention of the Nippon Orangequat if that is indeed what it is. Sure looks a lot like one anyway.

I got mine from the Just Fruits folks the article cites. I believe it will make a good marmalade fruit.

.....Alan.

I of course over-reacted to the title!

Come to think about this. Many people in the US would think that the citrons are mutants of lemons and the big pummelos are mutants of grapefruits. But the genetic truth is that pummelos and lemons are one of the foundation species of many citruses that we have today. Today's citruses are in fact mutant hybrids of the few original distinct citrus species. And people would call the original parents as the mutants because they are unfamiliar with them.

I made marmalade last year from my Nippon mandarinquats. I don't use any extra pectin and this one did not set up very well. I usually use about half limequat and everything sets up fine. Nevertheless, it was quite good.

I picked up a fruit the other week that look just like the image above at the Stanford University Citrus courtyard. None of there citrus are labelled and may have been planted 50+ years ago. I of course got a scion. I thought it was an orangequat, the peel was like a kumquat, but there was scarce pulp and the pulp was dry and not tart. The fruit I got may not have been fully ripe.
Any ideas on what I got?

Sounds kind of like a Thomasville.

My Thomasville tree produces fruit about 2 to 2-1/2 times larger than a Nagami Kumquat. The rind is smooth, with quite a lot of juicy sour pulp for a small fruit. The amount of juice all depends on how long you let the fruit remain on the tree. - Millet (1072-)

If picked early, the Thomasvilles I have seen are fairly juicy, with a low seed count. There will be about as many seed that are not viable (shriveled up). Most have 0-3 viable seed per fruit; sometimes as high as 5. (I save about 200 seed each year so I am familiar with the seed count.)

Thomasville fruit will dry out on the tree fairly quickly, so that would explain any dryness at this time of year. IMO the fruit is not as good as a Nippon, which is juicer, and becomes sweeter the longer it stays on the tree.

Ned

I agree with Ned about Thomasville fruit not being all that tasty. I have come close several times to tossing my Thomasville tree onto the compost pile, along with all the other non good tasting citrus varieties that have been sent down that path in the past. I normally only eat a couple of the fruit, and let the rest just fall from the tree. Life is becoming to short to care for any citrus variety that has the name "citrange" or "Australian" attached to it. - Millet (1071-)

Millet, why not graft it to something that is much better.

Bonnie, that's a good idea. If I did that, I would bud the varieties BC-1, XIE Shan, and Page. - Millet (1,071-)

It makes a good rootstock. That is why I save the seed.

Thomasville does make a rather good root stock. However, I'm getting to old to grow root stocks, then wait a year or two until the root stock has grown big enough to bud or graft, and finally wait yet another year or two for the bud to grow big enough to begin producing a few fruit. I find it better to just purchase the varity of tree that I want. . Buying a tree, rather than going through all the trouble of root stocks, budding, grafting, is faster, cleaner, and is a much quicker path to fruit production. - Millet (1,070-)