Kingdom Plantae Family Rutaceae Species C. reticulata | Order Sapindales Genus Citrus | |
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The mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata; Chinese: 橘子 or 桔子; pinyin: júzi), also known as the robson, is a small citrus tree with fruit resembling other oranges.
Contents
- Etymology
- Fresh mandarins
- Peel
- Canning
- Traditional medicine
- Cultural significance
- Genetics
- Varieties
- Pure mandarins
- Unknown
- Hybrids with mandarin ancestry
- Non mandarins
- Biological characteristics
- References
Mandarins are usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Specifically reddish-orange mandarin cultivars can be marketed as tangerines, but this is not a botanical classification.
Mandarins are smaller and oblate, rather than spherical like the common oranges (which are a mandarin hybrid). The taste is considered less sour, as well as sweeter and stronger. A ripe mandarin is firm to slightly soft, heavy for its size, and pebbly-skinned. The peel is very thin, with very little bitter white mesocarp, so they are usually easier to peel and to split into segments. Hybrids generally have these traits to a lesser degree.
The tree is more drought-tolerant than the fruit. The mandarin is tender and is damaged easily by cold. It can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas.
According to molecular studies, the mandarin, the citron, the pomelo, and the papeda were the ancestors of most other commercial citrus varieties, through breeding or natural hybridization; mandarins are therefore all the more important as the only sweet fruit among the parental species.
Etymology
The name "mandarin orange" is a calque of Swedish mandarin apelsin, first attested in the 18th century. The form "mandarine" derives from the French name for this fruit. The reason for the epithet "mandarin" is not clear, hypotheses ranging from the yellow colour of some robes worn by mandarin dignitaries to the mandarin being an excellent kind of Chinese orange.
Fresh mandarins
Mandarins are generally peeled and eaten fresh. The fresh fruit is also used in salads, desserts and main dishes. Fresh tangerine juice and frozen juice concentrate are commonly available in the United States. The number of seeds in each segment (carpel) varies greatly.
Peel
The peel is used fresh, whole or zested, or dried as chenpi. It can be used as a spice for cooking, baking, drinks, or candy.
Canning
Canned mandarin segments are peeled to remove the white pith prior to canning; otherwise, they turn bitter. Segments are peeled using a chemical process. First, the segments are scalded in hot water to loosen the skin; then they are bathed in a lye solution, which digests the albedo and membranes. Finally, the segments undergo several rinses in plain water. They are often used in salads, desserts, and baking.
Traditional medicine
In traditional Chinese medicine, the dried peel of the fruit is used in the regulation of ch'i, and also used to treat abdominal distension, to enhance digestion, and to reduce phlegm. Mandarins have also been used in ayurveda (traditional medicine of India).
Cultural significance
During Chinese New Year, mandarin oranges/tangerine/satsumas are considered traditional symbols of abundance and good fortune. During the two-week celebration, they are frequently displayed as decoration and presented as gifts to friends, relatives, and business associates.
Mandarin oranges, particularly from Japan, are a Christmas tradition in Canada, the United States and Russia. In the United States, they are commonly purchased in 5- or 10-pound boxes, individually wrapped in soft green paper, and given in Christmas stockings. This custom goes back to the 1880s, when Japanese immigrants in the United States began receiving Japanese mandarin oranges from their families back home as gifts for the New Year. The tradition quickly spread among the non-Japanese population, and eastwards across the country: each November harvest, "The oranges were quickly unloaded and then shipped east by rail. 'Orange Trains' – trains with boxcars painted orange – alerted everyone along the way that the irresistible oranges from Japan were back again for the holidays. For many, the arrival of Japanese mandarin oranges signaled the real beginning of the holiday season."
This Japanese tradition merged with European traditions related to the Christmas stocking. Saint Nicholas is said to have put gold coins into the stockings of three poor girls so that they would be able to afford to get married. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold, and oranges became a symbolic stand-in for these gold balls, and are put in Christmas stockings in Canada along with chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil.
Satsumas were also grown in the United States from the early 1900s, but Japan remained a major supplier. U.S. imports of these Japanese oranges was suspended due to hostilities with Japan during World War II. While they were one of the first Japanese goods allowed for export after the end of the war, residual hostility led to the rebranding of these oranges as "mandarin" oranges.
The delivery of the first batch of mandarin oranges from Japan in the port of Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada), is greeted with a festival that combines Santa Claus and Japanese dancers—young girls dressed in traditional kimonos.
In Russia, mandarin oranges (tangerines) have traditionally been supplied from Morocco (though there exist a theory that it was only used to mask the supplies of Israeli tangerines during the period of particularly bad relations between Israel and Soviet Union) and are associated with that country, even though nowadays they are also supplied from other countries, e.g. Spain, Israel and Egypt. Another major supplier was a domestic region of Abkhazia in the Caucasus, and even after the Dissolution of the Soviet Union it continued to supply its characteristically yellow-greenish and particularly aromatic fruits to the central Russian regions. The eastern parts of the country, in turn, were generally supplied from China or Vietnam, and continue so nowadays, with the characteristic 10 and 20-pound plastic and cardboard boxes being the ubiquitous seasonal sight. Anyway, regardless of the supplier or variety, mandarin oranges were and are an iconic symbol of winter and the holiday season in Russia, in an interesting parallel with the same status it holds in Japan.
Historically, the Christmas fruit imported to North America was mostly Dancys, but now it is more often a hybrid.
Genetics
Mandarins are one of the four core ancestral citrus taxa, and are thought to have evolved in Vietnam, south China, and Japan.
Pure mandarins seem to divide into two groups; an edible group, including the Nanfengmiju, and an "acidic" group, which is too sour to be edible but which is widely used as rootstock and grown for juice; this includes Sunki, Shekwasha, and Cleopatra mandarins.
Under the Tanaka classification system, mikans, satsumas, tangerines etc. are considered to be divided into different species, including Citrus unshiu and Citrus tangerina. Under the Swingle system, all these are considered to be groups of mandarin varieties. Unshius and tangerines genetically resemble mandarins, but the genetics are still not thoroughly studied.
Like all citrus fruit, mandarins hybridize readily with other citrus. Many fruit sold as mandarins are in fact hybrids with some pummelo (C. maxima) ancestry, and are thus on a continuum with clementines, sweet and sour oranges, and grapefruit.
Hybrids between mandarins and other citrus fruits are sold under a variety of names; see below.
Varieties
Mandarins marketed as tangerines in the US are or were usually Dancy, Sunburst or Murcott (Honey) cultivars; Sunbursts and Murcotts are hybrids.
Pure mandarins
Unknown
Hybrids with mandarin ancestry
Non-mandarins
Biological characteristics
Citrus fruits are usually self-fertile (needing only a bee to move pollen within the same flower) or parthenocarpic (not needing pollination and therefore seedless, such as the satsuma).
Blossoms from the Dancy cultivar are one exception. They are self-sterile, and therefore must have a pollinator variety to supply pollen, and a high bee population to make a good crop.