Grapefruit
Grapefruit, hybrid citrus.
Scientific classification
Kinrick: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Faimily: Rutaceae
Genus: Citrus
Species: C. × paradisi
Binomial name
Citrus × paradisi
Macfad.

The grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) is a subtropical citrus tree kent for its sour tae semi-sweet fruit, an 18t-century hybrid first bred in Barbados.[1] Whan foond, it wis named the "forbidden fruit";[2] an it haes an aa been misidentified wi the pomelo or shaddock (C. maxima), ane o the parents o this hybrid, the ither bein sweet orange (C. × sinensis).[3]

These evergreen trees uisually grow tae aroond 5–6 meter (16–20 ft) in hicht, tho thay can reak 13–15 metre (43–49 ft)*. The leafs is mirk green, lang (up tae 150 mm, 6 inch) an thin. It produces 5 cm (2 in) white fower-petaled flouers. The fruit is yellae-orange skinned an lairgely an oblate spheroid; it ranges in diameter frae 10–15 cm. The flesh is dividit in liths an is shilp, varyin in colour dependin on the cultivars, whilk include white, pink an reid pulps o varyin sweetness (generally, the reider varieties is sweeter). The 1929 US Ruby Red (o the Redblush variety) haes the first grapefruit patent.[4]

References eedit

  1. Carrington, Sean; Fraser, HenryC (2003). "Grapefruit". A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean. pp. 90–91. ISBN 0-333-92068-6. One of many citrus species grown in Barbados. This fruit is believed tae hae originated in Barbados as a natural cross atween sweet oranger (C. sinesis) and Shaddock (C. grandis), baith o whilk wis introduced frae Asia in the seiventeent century. The grapefruit first appeared as an illustration entitled 'The Forbidden Fruit Tree' in the Rev. Griffith Hughes' The Natural History of Barbados (1750). This accords with the scientific name which literally is 'citrus of paradise'. The fruit was obviously fairly common around that time since George Washington in his Barbados Journal (1750-1751) mentions 'the Forbidden Fruit' as one of the local fruit available at a dinner party he attended. The plant was later described in the 1837 Flora of Jamaica as the Barbados Grapefruit. The historical arguments and experimental work on leaf enzymes an oils from possible parents all support a Barbadian origin for the fruit. Cite has empty unkent parameter: |month= (help); |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  2. Dowling, Curtis F.; Morton, Julia Frances (1987). Fruits of warm climates. Miami, FL: J. F. Morton. ISBN 0-9610184-1-0. OCLC 16947184.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors leet (link)
  3. Li, Xiaomeng (2010). "The Origin of Cultivated Citrus as Inferred from Internal Transcribed Spacer and Chloroplast DNA Sequence and Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism Fingerprints". Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science. 135 (4): 341. Retrieved 27 Februar 2013. Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. Texas grapefruit history Archived 2010-11-28 at the Wayback Machine, TexaSweet. Retrieved 2 July 2008.