Wednesday, June 19, 2013

SanCitChang

Parents: 1/8 Poncirus, 1/8 Orange, 1/4 Pummelo, and 1/2 Satsuma (mandarin).
Breeder: Dr. Brown
Flavor:  Good, but there is little information.  Personal taste: no bitterness, not very sweet, enjoyable.



SanCitChang is the name given to a set of hybrids made by Dr John Brown.  It was created from open pollinated seed from Sanford Citrange crossed with Changsha mandarin.  He assumed that the Sanford Citrange seedling was crossed with Pummelo.  .


Dr Brown describes his work:

“...the citranges Phelps and Sanford were the only two of Dr. Swingle’s hybrids that were monoembryonic. ...These seedlings produced two important progeny.  The first, an extra vigorous tree with dark green, larger leaves came to be called ‘Sanford F2' citrummelo.  Both were very mono-embryonic as parents in later breeding experiments.  The citrummelo was assumed to be a hybrid with grapefruit or pummelo, hence the name, and produced beautiful yellow fruit, of smooth skin, fair size and delicious odor externally, but terrible flavor, as bad as the worst of the F2 citranges, such as Sanford itself. 

SanCit is the name given to hybrids of Sanford citrumello seedlings [1]



((hardy orange x orange 'Ruby') x unknown pummelo)) x Changsha satsuma

(Poncirus trifoliata x Citrus sinensis 'Ruby') x Citrus grandis) x (Citrus reticulata 'Changsha').

However the hybrids may be without the Pummelo, (Poncirus trifoliata x Citrus sinensis) x (Citrus reticulata) as he states here.  “Complex hybrids are now being produced, such as the Sancitchang, a cross between the Sanford Citrange (a trifoliate X orange cross) and a Changsha Tangerine” [2]


Sanford Citrange

Sanford Citrange is a cross between Poncirus trifoliata and Citrus sinensis. "Eleven different citranges - Norton, Morton, Sanford, Willitts, Phelps, Coleman, Saunders, Cunningham, and Etonia - were grown from seeds of a single fruit of P. trifoliata crossed with pollen from a single flower of ruby sweet orange (Swingle 1913)."[3] 

This cross was made before 1899 [4]


"by applying pollen of the sweet orange to a properly bagged flower of the trifoliate orange and from a crossed fruit so secured a dozen hybrid seedlings developed, among them the Coleman, Morton, Savage, Rustic, Etonia, Norton, Phelps and Sanford citranges...  Only two citranges, the Phelps and the Sanford, are known to produce regularly numerous true F2 seedlings."[5]



One of the crosses is named "SanCitChang #10 Roundleaf.  It is a very attractive plant with an unusual leaf shape unlike any other citrus listed here. Instead of the usual elliptical leaf with a pointed tip, this hybrid between the Sanford citrange and Changsha mandarin has a leaf that is nearly round. It produces a bumpy orange fruit that looks like a tangerine and is reputed to be sweet. It has proven hardy as far north as Dallas, Texas but there are no fruiting specimens yet in the Southeast. There are several other SanCitChang cultivars, but the #10 appears to be the best tasting. All should be hardy in zone 8 [6]

Changsha Mandarin
Changsha Mandarin is hardy to 12º [6]
 

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