Kitchli sour orange hybrid

Vadlapudi sour orange

Guntur sour orange

Citrus maderaspatana Tan.

CRC 3225

PI 539348

Photos by David Karp, CVC,  2/11/2008. Photo rights.

Source: Received as budwood from Ted Frolich, University of California, Los Angeles, 1959. Open pollinated seedling.

Parentage/origins: Parents unknown.

Rootstocks of accession: Carrizo citrange, C-35 citrange

Season of ripeness at Riverside: January to March

Notes and observations:

2/26/1988, EMN: Probably a sour orange hybrid. Compact tree; wide leaf, wide petiole; yound flush tinged purple. Fruit the size of a small orange. Fruit round, medium orange color, very rough & bumpy, rind loose & puffy. Fairly seedy; flesh orange, somewhat coarse, not very juicy. Flavor sub-acid, almost edible but not quite- a bit too tart.

3/8/1988, EMN: Took fruit to Dr. Bitters for consultation. This may well be true to name (C. maderaspatana). W.P.B. slides show very similar fruit and C. maderaspatana is polyembryonic so this could well be a nucellar seedling line. Keep under this name and as a sour orange hybrid.

2/11/2008, OJB, TS & DK: Loose skin, small fruit, moderately seedy; has willowleaf mandarin aroma; leaves have crinkly waves. 

Description from The Citrus Industry Vol. 1 (1967):

"Fruit medium-sized, depressed globose to broadly obovoid; sometimes slightly necked; color yellowish-orange; seedy; rind rough, somewhat warty, and of medium thickness and adherence.  Core semi-hollow at maturity.  Flesh pale orange-colored; flavor pleasant at full maturity, with slightly bitter aftertaste and musky aroma.  Prior to maturity flesh sharply acid.  Cotyledons light green.
      An old Indian fruit of unknown origin, the Kitchli somewhat resembles the bittersweet orange though it is smaller, flatter, and rougher in surface texture.  It is of commercial importance in South India, principally in the Guntur district, where it is grown on a somewhat extensive scale.  Several clones are recognized, but only that of mildest flavor is propagated commercially."

Availability: Not commercially available in California.

USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network page for Citrus maderaspatana