Peppers & Citrus Fruits Codexery

Citron

An original citrus fruit, ancestor of lemons and limes.

Last updated

The citron (Citrus medica) is a fragrant, large citrus fruit characterized by its thick and coarse rind, and while it shares a resemblance to a lemon, it is bigger in size.[1][2] Through natural hybrid speciation or artificial hybridization, all other citrus types developed from original citrus fruits, with the citron being one of these ancestral forms.[2] The genus name Citrus and the fruit's name both trace back to the Latin word citrus.[3]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeTracheophytes
  2. CladeAngiosperms
  3. CladeEudicots
  4. CladeRosids
  5. OrderSapindales
  6. FamilyRutaceae
  7. GenusCitrus
  8. SpeciesCitrus medica

Named by L.

Close relatives

Other species of Citrus with a Codexery entry.

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Citron (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Conservation status

Least Concern (LC)

  1. LC▲ this species
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX
Population trend
Not held in our sources — see the assessment
Assessment published
2021

Source: IUCN Red List assessment · GBIF copy of the Red List category

Where the citron has been recorded

Where the citron has been recorded38 mapped locations from 952 GBIF occurrence records

Each dot is a place where the species has been observed and reported (952 records, half-degree grid) — not a modelled range. 358 inland records left out (institution coordinates).

Map: drawn by Codexery. Data: GBIF occurrence search (records CC0 / CC BY) · Natural Earth basemap (public domain)

Quick Facts

Genus
Citrus
Species
medica

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

The citron is an old and original citrus species.[4] Citron was also cultivated in Sumer as early as the 3rd millennium BC.[5] Self-pollination is the usual method of fertilization for the citron, leading to a high degree of genetic homozygosity in the plants.[6] In any citrus hybrid, the citron serves as the male parent, not the female one.[6]

Victor Loret, an Egyptologist and archaeologist, claimed to have identified the citron in a depiction on the walls of the botanical garden at Karnak Temple, a site dating to the era of Thutmosis III, roughly 3,500 years ago.[5]

What the cited sources add

A 2009 blog post by Katie Parla describes cedrata as a syrupy sweet bottled drink made from the cedro (citron or etrog).[7] The same source notes that Tassoni and other industrial producers of cedrata harvest in January and transform the citrons into a sweet beverage with a slight ginger aftertaste.[7] The Plant Lives website describes the citron as a small, shrubby tree up to 2.4 m tall.[8] The same source states that French citron comes from Latin citrus, which meant both a citron tree and a cedar tree and comes from Ancient Greek κέδρος (kédros), “cedar”.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Cedrate", Collins English Dictionary (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davidson, "The Oxford Companion to Food", Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 191; Klein, J., "Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the Middle-East", Springer Netherlands, 2014, p. 199–214 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Attlee, "The land where lemons grow: the story of Italy and its citrus fruit", Penguin Books, 2015, p. 201 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chambers, "Chambers's Encyclopedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the People", W. and R. Chambers, 1862, p. 55, vol. 3 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Scientific Committee, March 28, 1893: The Antiquity of the Citron in Egypt", Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, 1894 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Citron" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Search for the Authentic Citron: Historic and Genetic Analysis; HortScience 40(7):1963–1968. 2005"; Nicolosi, "Citrus phylogeny and genetic origin of important species as investigated by molecular markers", Theoretical and Applied Genetics, June 2000, p. 1155–1166; Barkley, "Assessing genetic diversity and population structure in a Citrus germplasm collection utilizing simple sequence repeat markers (SSRs)", Theoretical and Applied Genetics, May 2006, p. 1519–1531; Abkenar, "Phylogenetic relationships in the 'true citrus fruit trees' reveal en.wikipedia.org
  7. Parla, "Cedrata, A Strange and Refreshing Beverage", Katie Parla, 10 May 2009. facts only, no text reused. katieparla.com
  8. "Citrus medica", plantlives.com, 2 October 2021. facts only, no text reused. plantlives.com
  9. ""Lemon" in European languages". facts only, no text reused. jakubmarian.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Citron (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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