Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Redirect Template:Speciesbox Citrus unshiu is a semi-seedless and easy-peeling citrus species, also known as the satsuma mandarin or Japanese mandarin.<ref name=sortingcitrus>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikans were more popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu without seeds made people prone to infertility. Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period.<ref name = "jbp"/> It was introduced to the West from the Satsuma region of Japan in 1878.<ref name = "florida"/>
Citrus unshiu was named after Unshu (Wenzhou), a famous production area of Citrus species in China, in the late Edo period of Japan. Before the name unshu mikan was established in Japan, it was called nakajima mikain or nagashima mikan after the place name of Nishi-Nakajima in Amakusa District of the Higo Province (later Nagashima, Kagoshima), where the species is said to have been born.<ref name="Misaki"/><ref name="jbp"/><ref name="maff"/><ref name="ehime"/>
There are two theories about the origin of the Citrus unshiu. One is that Citrus unshiu originated in Japan, while the other is that it originated in China.<ref name = "florida">The Satsuma Mandarin University of Florida</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="crosscurrents.hawaii.edu">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to the Japanese origin theory, several species that would serve as the parents of Citrus unshiu were introduced from China, and in the 1600s, they were born in Nishi-Nakajima, Higo Province (later Nagashima, Kagoshima) in Japan. The Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,<ref name="maff">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ehime Prefecture<ref name="ehime">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Japanese scientists support this theory of Japanese origin.<ref name="plos">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Misaki">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="jbp">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Genetic studies conducted in the 2010s suggest that the maternal species of Citrus unshiu is kishu (Citrus kinokuni) and the paternal species is kunenbo (Citrus nobilis Lour. var. kunip).<ref name="plos"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name = "naro"/>
Various cultivars have been developed based on the Citrus unshiu, and in Japan, three cultivars, namely miyagawa wase, okitsu wase, and aoshima unshu, account for nearly half of the production volume of Citrus unshiu.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
NomenclatureEdit
The unshiu is known as Template:Transliteration (Template:Zh) in China, and Template:Transliteration in Japan (or formally Template:Nihongo, the Japanese reading of the characters used in Chinese). In both languages, the name means "honey citrus of Wenzhou" (a city in Zhejiang province, China). An alternative Chinese name, Template:Transliteration (Template:Zh), means "seedless mandarin".
One of the English names for the fruit, satsuma, is derived from the former Satsuma Province in Japan, from which these fruits were first exported to the West.<ref name = "florida"/>
The Afrikaans name {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} is also used in South African English. It came originally from the Tamil word Template:Transliteration, meaning citrus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
ClassificationEdit
Under the Tanaka classification system, Citrus unshiu is considered a separate species from the mandarin. Under the Swingle system, unshius are considered to be a group of mandarin varieties.<ref name=identification>Template:Cite journal</ref> Genetic analysis has shown the Satsuma to be a highly inbred mandarin-pomelo hybrid, with 22% of its genome, a larger proportion than seen in most mandarins, coming from pomelo. It arose when a mandarin of the low-pomelo Huanglingmiao or kishumikan variety (placed in C. reticulata by Tanaka) was crossed with a pomelo or pomelo hybrid, then the resulting cultivar was backcrossed with another Huanglingmiao or kishumikan mandarin.<ref name = "naro">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="Talon">Template:Cite journal and Supplement</ref><ref name=Shimizu>Template:Cite journal</ref>
CharacteristicsEdit
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Citrus unshiu is one of the sweetest citrus varieties.<ref name=sweetest>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It is usually seedless, and is about the size of other mandarin oranges (Citrus reticulata). Satsumas are known for their loose, leathery skin; the fruit is very easily peeled in comparison to other citrus fruits.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> The rind is often smooth to slightly rough with the shape of a medium to small flattened sphere.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=ufl>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Satsumas usually have 10 to 12 easily separable segments with tough membranes.<ref name=ufl /> The flesh is particularly delicate, and cannot withstand the effects of careless handling.<ref name=":2" /> Coloring of the fruit is often dependent on climate; satsumas grown in humid areas may be ripe while the skin is still green while those grown in areas with cool night temperatures may see a brilliant reddish orange skin at peak.<ref name=ufl />
Satsumas are cold-hardy, and when planted in colder locations, the fruit becomes sweeter from the colder temperatures. A mature satsuma tree can survive down to Template:Convert or even Template:Convert for a few hours.<ref name=stein /> Of the edible citrus varieties, only the kumquat is more cold-hardy. Satsumas rarely have any thorns, an attribute that also makes them popular.<ref name=ufl/> They can be grown from seed, which takes about eight years until the first fruits are produced, or grafted onto other citrus rootstocks, such as trifoliate orange.<ref name=ufl />
HistoryEdit
United States of AmericaEdit
Jesuits brought the fruit from Asia to North America in the 18th century, starting groves in the Jesuit Plantation upriver from New Orleans, Louisiana (then a part of New Spain). The municipal street "Orange" in New Orleans, was originally named "Rue Des Orangers" and the site of the Jesuit grove. The groves were later re-cultivated farther south in Plaquemines Parish to provide greater protection from harmful frosts, and have continued to the present day. The Becnel family are the largest growers of Louisiana citrus.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The fruit became much more common in the United States starting in the late 19th century. In 1878 during the Meiji period, Owari mikans were brought to the United States from the Satsuma Province in Kyūshū, Japan, by Anna Van Valkenburgh,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> the spouse of the US Minister to Japan, General Van Valkenburgh, who renamed them satsumas.<ref name = "florida"/><ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> Between 1908 and 1911 about a million Owari mikan trees were imported throughout the lower Gulf Coast states.<ref name=stein>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Owari is still commonly grown in Florida.<ref name=ufl /> The towns of Satsuma, Alabama, Satsuma, Florida, Satsuma, Texas, and Satsuma, Louisiana were named after this fruit. By 1920 Jackson County in the Florida Panhandle had billed itself as the "Satsuma Capital of the World". However, the commercial industry was damaged by a Template:Convert cold snap in 1911, a hurricane in 1915,<ref name=stein /> and a very cold period in the late 1930s.
DistributionEdit
Citrus unshiu is amongst others grown in Japan, Spain, central China, Korea, the US, South Africa, South America, New Zealand, and around the Black Sea.<ref name=ufl /><ref name=":0" />
VarietiesEdit
Unshiu varieties cluster among the mandarin family.<ref name=ident1>Template:Cite journal</ref> There are, however, some hybrids.
Possible non-hybridsEdit
HybridsEdit
- Amanatsu (pomelo hybrid)
- Kinkoji unshiu (C. obovoidea(kinkoji) × C. unshiu)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web }}</ref>
- Kiyomi
- Dekopon is a kiyomi hybrid
- Kobayashi mikan (C. natsudaidai × C.unshiu)<ref name=ident2>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Shonan Gold
- Iyokan
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
Template:Citrus Template:Taxonbar Template:Authority control