Citrus unshiu | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Rutaceae |
Genus: | Citrus |
Species: | C. unshiu |
Binomial name | |
Citrus unshiu (Yu.Tanaka ex Swingle) Marcow. | |
Citrus unshiu is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as the satsuma mandarin or Japanese mandarin. [1] During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikans were more popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu without seeds made people prone to infertility. Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period. [2] It was introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in 1878. [3]
Citrus unshiu was named after Unshu (Wenzhou), a famous production area of mandarin oranges in China, in the late Edo period of Japan. Before the name unshu mikan was established in Japan, it was called nakajima mikain or nagashima mikan after the place name of Nishi-Nakajima in Amakusa District of the Higo Province (later Nagashima, Kagoshima), where the species was thought to have developed by mutation. [4] [2] It is said to have originated in either Japan [5] [4] [2] or China, and because of its name, it is often described as originating in China. [3] [6] [7] Genetic studies conducted in the 2010s suggest that the maternal species of Citrus unshiu is kishu (Citrus kinokuni) and the paternal species is kunenbo (Citrus nobilis Lour. var. kunip). [8] [9]
Various cultivars have been developed based on the Citrus unshiu, and in Japan, three cultivars, namely miyagawa wase, okitsu wase, and aoshima unshu, account for nearly half of the production volume of Citrus unshiu. [10]
The unshiu is known as wēnzhōu mìgān (simplified Chinese :温州蜜柑; traditional Chinese :溫州蜜柑) in China, and mikan in Japan (or formally unshū mikan (温州蜜柑), the Japanese reading of the characters used in Chinese). In both languages, the name means "honey citrus of Wenzhou" (a city in Zhejiang province, China). An alternative Chinese name, wúhé jú (simplified Chinese :无核橘; traditional Chinese :無核橘), means "seedless mandarin".
One of the English names for the fruit, satsuma, is derived from the former Satsuma Province in Japan, from which these fruits were first exported to the West. [3]
The Afrikaans name naartjie is also used in South African English. It came originally from the Tamil word nartei, meaning citrus. [11]
Under the Tanaka classification system, Citrus unshiu is considered a separate species from the mandarin. Under the Swingle system, unshius are considered to be a group of mandarin varieties. [12] Genetic analysis has shown the Satsuma to be a highly inbred mandarin-pomelo hybrid, with 22% of its genome, a larger proportion than seen in most mandarins, coming from pomelo. It arose when a mandarin of the low-pomelo Huanglingmiao or kishumikan variety (placed in C. reticulata by Tanaka) was crossed with a pomelo or pomelo hybrid, then the resulting cultivar was backcrossed with another Huanglingmiao or kishumikan mandarin. [9] [13] [14]
Citrus unshiu is one of the sweetest citrus varieties. [15] It is usually seedless, and is about the size of other mandarin oranges (Citrus reticulata). Satsumas are known for their loose, leathery skin; the fruit is very easily peeled in comparison to other citrus fruits. [16] The rind is often smooth to slightly rough with the shape of a medium to small flattened sphere. [17] [18] Satsumas usually have 10 to 12 easily separable segments with tough membranes. [18] The flesh is particularly delicate, and cannot withstand the effects of careless handling. [16] Coloring of the fruit is often dependent on climate; satsumas grown in humid areas may be ripe while the skin is still green while those grown in areas with cool night temperatures may see a brilliant reddish orange skin at peak. [18]
Satsumas are cold-hardy, and when planted in colder locations, the fruit becomes sweeter from the colder temperatures. A mature satsuma tree can survive down to −9 °C (15 °F) or even −11 °C (12 °F) for a few hours. [19] Of the edible citrus varieties, only the kumquat is more cold-hardy. Satsumas rarely have any thorns, an attribute that also makes them popular. [18] They can be grown from seed, which takes about eight years until the first fruits are produced, or grafted onto other citrus rootstocks, such as trifoliate orange. [18]
Jesuits brought the fruit from Asia to North America in the 18th century, starting groves in the Jesuit Plantation upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana (then a part of New Spain). The municipal street "Orange" in New Orleans, was originally named "Rue Des Orangers" and the site of the Jesuit grove. The groves were later re-cultivated farther south in Plaquemines Parish to provide greater protection from harmful frosts, and have continued to the present day. The Becnel family are the largest growers of Louisiana citrus. [20]
The fruit became much more common in the United States starting in the late 19th century. In 1878 during the Meiji period, Owari mikans were brought to the United States from the Satsuma Province in Kyūshū, Japan, by Anna Van Valkenburgh, [21] the spouse of the US Minister to Japan, General Van Valkenburgh, who renamed them satsumas. [3] [22] Between 1908 and 1911 about a million Owari mikan trees were imported throughout the lower Gulf Coast states. [19] Owari is still commonly grown in Florida. [18] The towns of Satsuma, Alabama, Satsuma, Florida, Satsuma, Texas, and Satsuma, Louisiana were named after this fruit. By 1920 Jackson County in the Florida Panhandle had billed itself as the "Satsuma Capital of the World." However, the commercial industry was damaged by a −13.3 °C (8.1 °F) cold snap in 1911, a hurricane in 1915, [19] and a very cold period in the late 1930s.
Citrus unshiu is amongst others grown in Japan, Spain, central China, Korea, the US, South Africa, South America, New Zealand, and around the Black Sea. [18] [22]
Unshiu varieties cluster among the mandarin family. [23] There are, however, some hybrids.
Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including crops such as oranges, mandarins, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus Citrus is native to South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Melanesia, and Australia. Various citrus species have been used and domesticated by indigenous cultures in these areas since ancient times. From there its cultivation spread into Micronesia and Polynesia by the Austronesian expansion ; and to the Middle East and the Mediterranean via the incense trade route, and onwards to Europe and the Americas.
A clementine is a tangor, a citrus fruit hybrid between a willowleaf mandarin orange and a sweet orange, named in honor of Clément Rodier, a French missionary who first discovered and propagated the cultivar in Algeria. The exterior is a deep orange colour with a smooth, glossy appearance. Clementines can be separated into 7 to 14 segments. Similar to tangerines, they tend to be easy to peel. They are typically juicy and sweet, with less acid than oranges. Their oils, like other citrus fruits, contain mostly limonene as well as myrcene, linalool, α-pinene and many complex aromatics.
The mandarin orange, also known as mandarin or mandarine, is a small, rounded citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Tangerines are a group of orange-colored citrus fruit consisting of hybrids of mandarin orange with some pomelo contribution.
The tangor is a citrus fruit hybrid of the mandarin orange and the sweet orange. The name "tangor" is a formation from the "tang" of tangerine and the "or" of "orange." Also called the temple orange, its thick rind is easy to peel and its bright orange pulp is sour-sweet and full-flavoured.
The iyokan, also known as anadomikan (穴門みかん) and Gokaku no Iyokan, is a Japanese citrus fruit, similar in appearance to a mandarin orange, with Dancy as the pollen parent and Kaikokan as the seed parent. It is the second most widely produced citrus fruit in Japan after the satsuma mandarin. Ehime Prefecture accounted for 90% of Iyokan production in 2021.
Ponkan ; Citrus poonensis; "Chinese Honey Orange") is a high-yield sweet Citrus cultivar with large fruits in the size of an orange. It is a citrus hybrid, though it was once thought to be a pure mandarin.
Sweet lemon and sweet lime refer to groups of citrus hybrids that contain low acid pulp and juice. They are hybrids often similar to non-sweet lemons or limes, but with less citron parentage. Sweet limes and lemons are not sharply separated:
The sweet lime, Citrus limettioides Tan., is often confused with the sweet lemon, C. limetta Tan., which, in certain areas, is referred to as "sweet lime". In some of the literature, it is impossible to tell which fruit is under discussion.
The Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, compiled in the 700s, were the first books in Japan to describe citrus fruits. The Nihon Shoki states that a man named Tajimamori brought back citrus fruits from the Tokoyo no kuni on the orders of Emperor Suinin, which is thought to refer to the tachibana orange that grows wild in Japan. The Man'yōshū, a collection of poems from the same period, contains many poems about tachibana orange, and because of its strong acidity at the time, it was dried and used for medicinal and ornamental purposes rather than for food. The Kokin Wakashū, compiled in the 900s, mentions that tachibana orange was burned and used as incense to give a nice fragrance to kimonos. In Japan, tachibana orange is a symbol of eternity and is the motif for the Order of Culture.
The kishu mikan is a hybrid variety of mikan, or mandarin orange, found in Southern China and also grown in Japan.
Ōgonkan or Ki-mikan are the common names for a small sized variety of Japanese citrus, whose rind is of a characteristic "golden" bright yellow color.
Citrus taxonomy refers to the botanical classification of the species, varieties, cultivars, and graft hybrids within the genus Citrus and related genera, found in cultivation and in the wild.
Jabara is a hybrid species of plant and fruit that is among the Japanese citrus.
The yūkō (ゆうこう), also written yukou, is a Japanese citrus found in the Nagasaki Prefecture and Saga Prefecture of Japan. Genetic analysis has shown it to be a cross between the kishumikan and koji, a part-tachibana orange hybrid native to Japan.
The Murcott is a tangor, or mandarin–sweet orange hybrid.
The komikan is a type of mandarin orange grown in Japan. "Ko" means "little", and "mikan" a type of citrus cultivar; komikans are unusually small. It is almost the same as the Kishumikan.
Tsunonozomi is a tangor cultivar grown in Japan.
Koji orange, also called smooth-fruited orange in English, bingyul in Korean, 光橘, 柑 子, and 日本土柑 in Chinese, and コウジ (kōji) in Japanese, is a Citrus species native to Japan. The specific epithet (leiocarpa) comes from Greek leios and karpon. It is a taxonomical synonym of Citrus aurantium.
Kinkoji unshiu is a Citrus hybrid cultivated for its edible fruit.
Kawachi Bankan, also called Mishokan and Uwa Gold, is a Citrus hybrid cultivated for its edible fruit.
Haruka is a Citrus cultivar grown in Japan and the Korean Peninsula.
During the Edo period, when kishu mikan were being cultivated, unshu mikan were already being cultivated. However, they were not yet called unshu mikan, but Nakajima mikan. Although mandarins were a luxury, unshu mikan were not the most popular. The unshu mikan is unique in that it is ready to peel and has no seeds. The lack of seeds is good because they are easy to eat, but in the Edo period, the lack of seeds was a factor that made them unpopular. It was believed that eating seedless fruit meant that one could no longer produce offspring, thus ending one's family lineage. When the fruit was named "unshu mikan" in the late Edo period, it was finally recognized. Wenzhou is a mandarin production area in China, and the name "unshu mikan" means "a mandarin comparable to the one produced in Wenzhou". The unshu mikan is often mistaken for a mandarin imported from China, but it is a genuine Japanese mandarin. It was not until the Meiji period that the cultivation of unshu mikan became popular.
(After the many years of research, Dr. Tanaka has concluded the place of origin of Satsuma is Nagashima, Kagoshima. Satsuma is a chance seedling of Sōkitsu, Mankitsu, or Tendaisankitsu introduced from Huangyan Zhejiang, China. It appeared in the early Edo period. The place where Satsuma was born by mutation was Nishi-nakajima, Amakusa District, Higo Province (later Nagashima, Kagoshima), and was called Nakajima Mikan or Nagashima Mikan.)
Therefore, it is likely that kunenbo was backcrossed to kishu in the Kagoshima region of Japan several times and Satsuma and Yatsushiro were selected from their offspring.
Mikan is a tangerine-like citrus fruit that is grown in warmer regions of Japan in large quantities. Many different varieties have been introduced to Japan from China since the eighth century, but since the late 19th century the most important variety has been the unshu.
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