Citron

Where does Citron grow?

Found in: Africa, Andamans, Asia, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Central America, China, Colombia, Congo DR, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Dominican Republic, East Africa, Ethiopia, Fiji, Greece, Guinea, Guinée, Guyana, Haiti, Hawaii, Himalayas, India, Indochina, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Korea, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mediterranean, Mexico, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, North Africa, North America, Northeastern India, Pacific, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, PNG, Peru, Philippines, Samoa, SE Asia, Senegal, Serbia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Southern Africa, South America, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Tibet, Tonga, Turkey, United States, Vanuatu, Vietnam, West Africa, West Indies

Notes: There are 20 Citrus species. Several hybrids have been formed.

Status: Fruit are sold in markets. It is common in some Mediterranean countries. Trees and fruit are only occasionally seen in Papua New Guinea.

Growing Citron

Cultivation: Trees can be grown by seed, cuttings or grafting. Seed should germinate in 21 days. Cuttings of 2-4 year old branches are used. Air-layering can be used. A spacing of 5-7 m is suitable.

Edible Uses: The thick layer of inner white skin is used as candied peel. It is also added to salads and used in fruit cakes. The juice of some kinds is used for drinks. The fruit are used for marmalade. Caution: The fruit contain coumarin that with sunlight can cause dermatitis in some people.

Production: It is slow growing. It is fairly short lived. Trees begin to bear when 3 years old. Trees reach peak production when 15 years old and may live for 25 years. Trees can produce 2,000 fruit in a year.

Nutrition Info

Citron Photos

References

AAK, 1980, Bertanam Pohon Buah-buahan. Penerbitan Yayasan Kanisius, Jogyakarta. p 33

AAK, 1994, Jeruk, Penerbit Kanisius, Jogyakarta. p 201

Ambasta, S.P. (Ed.), 2000, The Useful Plants of India. CSIR India. p 129

Anderson, E. F., 1993, Plants and people of the Golden Triangle. Dioscorides Press. p 206

Arora, R. K., 2014, Diversity in Underutilized Plant Species - An Asia-Pacific Perspective. Bioversity International. p 62 (Also as Citrus hassaku)

Ashton, M. S., et al 1997, A Field Guide to the Common Trees and Shrubs of Sri Lanka. WHT Publications Ltd. pdf p 346

Bajpai, O., et al, 2015, Tree species of the Himalayan Terai region of Uttar Pradesh, India: a checklist. Check List 11(4): 1718

Barwick, M., 2004, Tropical and Subtropical Trees. A Worldwide Encyclopedic Guide. Thames and Hudson p 118

Bekele-Tesemma A., Birnie, A., & Tengnas, B., 1993, Useful Trees and Shrubs for Ethiopia. Regional Soil Conservation Unit. Technical Handbook No 5. p 152

Blamey, M and Grey-Wilson, C., 2005, Wild flowers of the Mediterranean. A & C Black London. p 123

Bodkin, F., 1991, Encyclopedia Botanica. Cornstalk publishing, p 261

Brahma, S., et al, 2013, Wild edible fruits of Kokrajhar district of Assam, North-East India, Asian Journal of Plant Science and Research 3(6):95-100

Brouk, B., 1975, Plants Consumed by Man. Academic Press, London. p 294

Brown, D., 2002, The Royal Horticultural Society encyclopedia of Herbs and their uses. DK Books. p 172

Burkill, H. M., 1985, The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vol. 4. Kew.

Burkill, I.H., 1966, A Dictionary of the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol 1 (A-H) p 578

Cameron, J.W. & Soost, R.K., 1979, Citrus, in Simmonds, N.W., (ed), Crop Plant Evolution. Longmans. London. p 261

Chandrashekara, U. M., 2009, Tree species yielding edible fruit in the coffee-based homegardens of Kerala, India: their diversity, uses and management. Food Sec. 1:361-370

Cheifetz, A., (ed), 1999, 500 popular vegetables, herbs, fruits and nuts for Australian Gardeners. Random House p 181

Coronel, R.E., 1982, Fruit Collections in the Philippines. IBPGR Newsletter p 6

Cundall, P., (ed.), 2004, Gardening Australia: flora: the gardener's bible. ABC Books. p 384

Elevitch, C.R.(ed.), 2006, Traditional Trees of the Pacific Islands: Their Culture, Environment and Use. Permanent Agriculture Resources, Holualoa, Hawaii. p 245

Etherington, K., & Imwold, D., (Eds), 2001, Botanica's Trees & Shrubs. The illustrated A-Z of over 8500 trees and shrubs. Random House, Australia. p 215

Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 217

Flora of Pakistan. www.eFloras.org

Franklin, J., Keppel, G., & Whistler, W., 2008, The vegetation and flora of Lakeba, Nayau and Aiwa Islands, Central Lau Group, Fiji. Micronesica 40(1/2): 169–225, 2008

French, B.R., 1986, Food Plants of Papua New Guinea, A Compendium. Asia Pacific Science Foundation p 228

Gangwar, A. K. & Ramakrishnan, P. S., 1990, Ethnobotanical Notes on Some Tribes of Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India. Economic Botany, Vol. 44, No. 1 pp. 94-105

Hani Medicine of Xishuangbanna, 1999, p 651

Hedrick, U.P., 1919, (Ed.), Sturtevant's edible plants of the world. p 201

Hibbert, M., 2002, The Aussie Plant Finder 2002, Florilegium. p 68

Hu, Shiu-ying, 2005, Food Plants of China. The Chinese University Press. p 494

Jardin, C., 1970, List of Foods Used In Africa, FAO Nutrition Information Document Series No 2.p 128

Jeeva, S., 2009, Horticultural potential of wild edible fruits used by the Khasi tribes of Meghalaya. Journal or Horticulture and Forestry Vol. 1(9) pp. 182-192

John, L., & Stevenson, V., 1979, The Complete Book of Fruit. Angus & Robertson p 115

Kaya, O. M., et al, 2020, An ethnobotanical research in Sanhurfa central district and attached Villages (Turkey). Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. Vol. 19(1) pp 7-23

Khan, D. & Shaukat, S.S., 2006, The Fruits of Pakistan: Diversity, Distribution, Trends of Production and Use. Int. J. Biol. Biotech., 3(3):463-499 (As Citrus limetta)

Kiple, K.F. & Ornelas, K.C., (eds), 2000, The Cambridge World History of Food. CUP p 432, 1757, 1886

Klein, J. D., et al, 2014, Citron Cultivation, Production and Uses in the Mediterranean Region, in Z. Yaniv, N. Dudai (eds.), Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of the Middle-East, Springer

Kuo, W. H. J., (Ed.) Taiwan's Ethnobotanical Database (1900-2000), http://tk.agron.ntu.edu.tw/ethnobot/DB1.htm

Lazarides, M. & Hince, B., 1993, Handbook of Economic Plants of Australia, CSIRO. p 61

Lembaga Biologi Nasional, 1977, Buah-Buahan, Balai Pustaka, Jakarta. p 54

Liefting, A., et al, Samoan plant names. http://en.wikipedia.org

Llamas, K.A., 2003, Tropical Flowering Plants. Timber Press. p 339

Lorenzi, H., Bacher, L., Lacerda, M. & Sartori, S., 2006, Brazilian Fruits & Cultivated Exotics. Sao Paulo, Instituto Plantarum de Estuados da Flora Ltda. p 545

Lyle, S., 2006, Discovering fruit and nuts. Land Links. p 138

Macmillan, H.F. (Revised Barlow, H.S., et al) 1991, Tropical Planting and Gardening. Sixth edition. Malayan Nature Society. Kuala Lumpur. p 314

Manandhar, N.P., 2002, Plants and People of Nepal. Timber Press. Portland, Oregon. p 157

Mbuya, L.P., Msanga, H.P., Ruffo, C.K., Birnie, A & Tengnas, B., 1994, Useful Trees and Shrubs for Tanzania. Regional Soil Conservation Unit. Technical Handbook No 6. p 180

Morton, J. F., 1987, Fruits of Warm Climates. Wipf & Stock Publishers p 179

Mulherin, J., 1994, Spices and natural flavourings. Tiger Books, London. p 104

Mukhia, P.K., et al, 2013, Wild plants as Non Wood Forest Products used by the rural community of Dagana, a southern foothill district of Bhutan, SAARC Journal, 27 pages

Murtem, G. & Chaudhrey, P., 2016, An ethnobotanical note on wild edible plants of Upper Eastern Himalaya, India. Brazilian Journal of Biological Sciences, 2016, v. 3, no. 5, p. 63-81.

NYBG Herbarium "edible"

Ochse, J. J. et al, 1931, Vegetables of the Dutch East Indies. Asher reprint. p 648

Omawale, 1973, Guyana's edible plants. Guyana University, Georgetown p 14

Patiri, B. & Borah, A., 2007, Wild Edible Plants of Assam. Geethaki Publishers. p 21

Peekel, P.G., 1984, (Translation E.E.Henty), Flora of the Bismarck Archipelago for Naturalists, Division of Botany, Lae, PNG. p 272, 273

Pegu, R., et al, 2013, Ethnobotanical study of Wild Edible Plants in Poba Reserved Forest, Assam, India. Research Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences 1(3):1-10

Phon, P., 2000, Plants used in Cambodia. © Pauline Dy Phon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. p 159

Plants of Haiti Smithsonian Institute http://botany.si.edu/antilles/West Indies

PROSEA handbook Volume 13 Spices. p 275

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South East Asia) handbook, Volume 2, 1991, Edible fruits and nuts.

Purseglove, J.W., 1968, Tropical Crops Dicotyledons, Longmans. p 504

Rajapaksha, U., 1998, Traditional Food Plants in Sri Lanka. HARTI, Sri Lanka. p 430

Sawian, J. T., et al, 2007, Wild edible plants of Meghalaya, North-east India. Natural Product Radiance Vol. 6(5): p 414

Segura, S., et al, 2018, The edible fruit species in Mexico. Genet Resour Crop Evol (2018) 65:1767–1793

Seidemann J., 2005, World Spice Plants. Economic Usage, Botany, Taxonomy. Springer. p 108

Selvam, V., 2007, Trees and shrubs of the Maldives. RAP Publication No. 2007/12 p 70

Singh, H.B., Arora R.K.,1978, Wild edible Plants of India. Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. p 53

Singh, P.K., Singh, N.I., and Singh, L.J., 1988, Ethnobotanical Studies on Wild Edible Plants in the Markets of Manipur - 2. J. Econ. Tax. Bot. Vol. 12 No. 1 pp 113-119

Solomon, C., 2001, Encyclopedia of Asian Food. New Holland. p 98

Solomon Islands Ministry of Agriculture, 1996, Solomon Islands: Country report to the FAO International Technical Report of Plant Genetic Resources. Leipzig. p 23

Song, M., et al, 2013, Traditional knowledge of wild edible plants in Jeju Island, Korea. Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge. 12(2) pp 177-194 (As Citrus hassaku)

Sp. pl. 2:782. 1753

Staples, G.W. and Herbst, D.R., 2005, A tropical Garden Flora. Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu, Hawaii. p 505

Styger, E., et al, 1999, Indigenous fruit trees of Madagascar: potential components of agroforestry systems to improve human nutrition and restore biological diversity. Agroforestry Systems 46: 289-310

Sujanapal, P., & Sankaran, K. V., 2016, Common Plants of Maldives. FAO & Kerala FRI, p 87

Taram, M., et al, 2018, Wild Food Plant Resources of Komkar Adi Tribe of Upper Siang District in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Bulletin of Arunachal Forest Research, Vol. 33(2), 27-35

Thaman, R.R., 1976, The Tongan Agricultural System, University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. p 389

USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network - (GRIN). [Online Database] National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Available: www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/econ.pl (10 April 2000)

Valder, P., 1999, The Garden Plants of China. Florilegium. p 253

van Wyk, B., 2005, Food Plants of the World. An illustrated guide. Timber press. p 142

Vasquez, R. and Gentry, A. H., 1989, Use and Misuse of Forest-harvested Fruits in the Iquitos Area. Conservation Biology 3(4): 350f

Vickery, M.L. and Vickery, B., 1979, Plant Products of Tropical Africa, Macmillan. p 43

Walter, A. & Lebot, V., 2007, Gardens of Oceania. ACIAR Monograph No. 122. CD-ROM minor species p 8

World Checklist of Useful Plant Species 2020. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew