Citrus sinensis

April 9, 2021 by savvas

Citrus sinensis

Name/Όνομα:    Κιτρέα η σινική

Scientific name/Επιστημονικό όνομα:    Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck.

Common name/Κοινό Όνομα:  Navel orange,  Orange tree, πορτοκαλιά.

Family/Οικογένεια:   RUTACEAE

 

 

Description

 

Plant:    Evergreen tree growing up to 6 m high.

Stem/s:  Trunk rather short, much-branched, bark ash brown, foliage rounded; young stems may bear spines.

Leaves:   Alternate, simple, entire, ovate-elliptic, leathery, dark green,  gland-dotted beneath, petiole with small wings.

Flowers:  Aromatic, actinomorphic and hermaphrodite, solitary or in few-flowered axillary racemes; calyx cup-shaped, short, green and glabrous, 5-lobed; lobes broadly-triangular, subacute, connected at the base; petals 4-5, oblong-ovate, spreading, free or partially connected, white both sides, gland-dotted; buds are white; stamens ±20, filaments erect, white and glabrous, united in bundles at the base, anthers yellow, introrse*, longitudinally dehiscent, gland-tipped ; ovary superior, orbicular with few segments, sitting on the nectary disk, style 1, erect, thick and glabrous, stigma 1, large, discoid, greenish;      

Flowering time:  March-April.                    Fruiting time: November-March.      

Fruit:  Ovoid berry**, orange or orange-yellow, peel thick, dotted with aromatic oil glands, with 8-10 internal juicy and acid segments; seeds ovoid, ± white and shining or seedless.   

Habitat:   Cultivated species, gardens, home-yards, parking places, sides of main streets, from 0-600 m alt.  

Native:   Southeastern Asia ( China, India).

 

Introrse* = facing inward

Berry** = A fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary, enclosing many seeds (lemon, grapes,  tomatoes)

 

 

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