Many citrus plants make seeds that are actually clones of the mother plant
More Citrus Trivia by SmartHerbals:
Citrus genetics are convoluted, to put it mildly, but there are five “progenitor species”, namely kumquat (genus and species undecided), micrantha (Citrus micrantha), citron (C. medica), mandarin (C. reticulata), and pummelo (C. maxima)
Many commercial citrus varieties exhibit apomixis, a form of asexual reproduction that makes a seed with only the maternal DNA (so the new plant is a clone of the mother plant)
Citrus has been cultivated for at least 4000 years
Evolutionarily, citrus is a distant cousin of cacao (no wonder we like chocolate and orange as a combination)
Citrus essential oils have antifungal activity against food spoilage fungi
Orange peels have been proposed as a more environmentally-friendly way to produce antibacterial silver nanoparticles
Around 79 million tons of oranges were produced worldwide in 2019
Sources:
Kaviya, S., Santhanalakshmi, J., Viswanathan, B., Muthumary, J. and Srinivasan, K., 2011. Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Citrus sinensis peel extract and its antibacterial activity. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 79(3), pp.594-598.
Viuda-Martos, M., Ruiz-Navajas, Y., Fernández-López, J. and Pérez-Álvarez, J., 2008. Antifungal activity of lemon (Citrus lemon L.), mandarin (Citrus reticulata L.), grapefruit (Citrus paradisi L.) and orange (Citrus sinensis L.) essential oils. Food control, 19(12), pp.1130-1138.
Wang, X., Xu, Y., Zhang, S., Cao, L., Huang, Y., Cheng, J., Wu, G., Tian, S., Chen, C., Liu, Y. and Yu, H., 2017. Genomic analyses of primitive, wild and cultivated citrus provide insights into asexual reproduction. Nature Genetics, 49(5), pp.765-772.
Wu, G.A., Terol, J., Ibanez, V., López-García, A., Pérez-Román, E., Borredá, C., Domingo, C., Tadeo, F.R., Carbonell-Caballero, J., Alonso, R. and Curk, F., 2018. Genomics of the origin and evolution of Citrus. Nature, 554(7692), pp.311-316.
Xu, Q., Chen, L.L., Ruan, X., Chen, D., Zhu, A., Chen, C., Bertrand, D., Jiao, W.B., Hao, B.H., Lyon, M.P. and Chen, J., 2013. The draft genome of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis). Nature genetics, 45(1), pp.59-66.
Images: Adobe Stock - Irina Schmidt (citrus); Unsplash - Bimata Prathama (Clone Trooper)
