JAPANESE TANGERINE TREE SKIN

Satsumas rarely have any thorns, an attribute that also makes them popular. Of the edible citrus varieties, only the kumquat is more cold-hardy. A mature satsuma tree can survive down to −9 ☌ (15 ☏) or even −11 ☌ (12 ☏) for a few hours.

Satsumas are cold-hardy, and when planted in colder locations, the fruit becomes sweeter from the colder temperatures.

JAPANESE TANGERINE TREE SKIN

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. The flesh is particularly delicate, and cannot withstand the effects of careless handling. Satsumas usually have 10 to 12 easily separable segments with tough membranes. The rind is often smooth to slightly rough with the shape of a medium to small flattened sphere. Satsumas are known for their loose, leathery skin the fruit is very easily peeled in comparison to other citrus fruits. It is usually seedless, and is about the size of other mandarin oranges ( Citrus reticulata). Characteristics Ĭitrus unshiu is one of the sweetest citrus varieties. reticulata by Tanaka) was crossed with a pomelo or pomelo hybrid, then the resulting cultivar was backcrossed with another huanglingmiao/kishu mandarin. It arose when a mandarin of the low-pomelo huanglingmiao/kishu variety (placed in C. 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. Under the Swingle system, unshius are considered to be a group of mandarin varieties. Under the Tanaka classification system, Citrus unshiu is considered a separate species from the mandarin. It came originally from the Tamil word nartei, meaning citrus. The Afrikaans name naartjie is also used in South African English. 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. An alternative Chinese name, wúhé jú ( simplified Chinese: 无核橘 traditional Chinese: 無核橘), means 'seedless mandarin'. In both languages, the name means 'honey citrus of Wenzhou' (a city in Zhejiang province, China). 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).

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. 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. It is said to have originated in either Japan or China, and because of its name, it is often described as originating in China. 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. Ĭitrus unshiu was named after Unshu (Wenzhou), a famous production area of mandarin oranges in China, in the late Edo period of Japan. It was introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in 1878. Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period. During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikan was the most popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu (Satsuma) without seeds made people more prone to infertility. Citrus unshiu is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as miyagawa mandarin, unshu mikan, cold hardy mandarin, satsuma mandarin, satsuma orange, naartjie, and tangerine.

Japanese tangerine tree