Blue Sailor
A little while ago, I asked the question, “What do you get when you cross a mandarin with a pomelo?” I had a lot of great answers from some of you here. Several people suggested this hybrid fruit might be a tangelo. That’s a very good guess, because the pomelo is one of the tangelo’s parents. But the other one is a tangerine. So this is not what we’re looking for.
<a data-snax-placeholder="Source" class="snax-figure-source" href="http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Grapefruit-Fujian-Honey-Pomelo-2215031" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Grapefruit-Fujian-Honey-Pomelo-2215031</a>
A few people suggested grapefruit, which is also a good guess. The pomelo is also one of the parents of the grapefruit, another hybrid fruit in the citrus family. It’s really interesting, because a lot of people in North America aren’t even familiar with the pomelo fruit. I know I’ve certainly never tasted one or seen it sold at the grocery store.
A few people made up fun names for the hybrid fruit. I really liked “mangelo,” which made me think of the French verb manger, to eat. There was also “manelo” and “Pomerine.” This last one reminded me of the dog breed Pomeranian, LOL!
So what is actually the answer? Did you guess it right, as a couple of the people who commented?
The hybrid that results from a cross between a pomelo and a mandarin is the sweet orange. The botanical name of this complex hybrid is Citrus × sinensis. And it’s about 25% pomelo, but 75% mandarin.
<a data-snax-placeholder="Source" class="snax-figure-source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/plums-ripe-healthy-food-fresh-1573004/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://pixabay.com/en/plums-ripe-healthy-food-fresh-1573004/</a>
Another complex hybrid that you may have been eating is a plumcot, or pluot. This fruit is a complex cross between a plum and an apricot, but in North America it is often sold as a plum. So you may have already tried it without realizing it!
You can learn more about oranges and nutrition here. You can learn more about plumcots here.
Such a neat post, especially for those who are just being introduced to hybrid citrus fruit. I would vote for pomandelo as the name. :- )
I was really surprised that sweet oranges are a hybrid. I always figured it was the mandarin that was a cross of two other fruits!
I think I was close. It’s surprising that many of the citrus fruits are hybrids.
It is, isn’t it? I intend to do a little more digging and see what else is a hybrid. I think we may be surprised 🙂
The hybrid fruits invite curiosity!
They sure do, Albert! Were you surprised by the answer to the question?
We love to have Mandarin oranges during Chinese New Year festival.
We get them mostly at Christmas. I love the seedless clementines best of all.
Very interesting, wow so cool to read this!
Were you surprised by the answer, Carol? I sure was!
Nice post! Nice pictures!
They’re not my photos, so I can’t take credit 🙂
That’s absolutely dumbstriking! Thanks so much for bring this to us! And I’ll be on the lookout for a plumcot 🙂
I felt the same way when I first learned oranges were a hybrid! I’d always assumed they were one of the parent fruits for other hybrids, not the other way around. I actually thought that mandarins were the hybrid. Not so! Nature is a mysterious lady….