Sanbokan sour orange hybrid

Sanbo sour orange hybrid

Citrus sulcata Takahashi

CRC 3257

PI 539677

Photos by David Karp, CVC,  3/3/2008. Photo rights.

Source: Received as budwood from Ted Frolich, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 1960. Open pollinated seedling.

Parentage/origins: From Japan. The Sanbokan of Wakayama prefecture and elsewhere. From its pronounced basal nipple it is unmistakable from any other citrus. It is grown on an economic scale as a valuable late maturing citrus of good taste and desirable flesh texture. Parents unknown.

Rootstocks of accession: Carrizo citrange, C-35 citrange

Season of ripeness at Riverside: January to March

Notes and observations:

Notes from W.P. Bitters' 1963 trip to Japan: Tree is rather big and comparatively cold resistant, but inferior to Satsuma. Fruit shape is somewhat short ovoid, stem and long necked, medium size fruit, rind 10 mm thick, seeds are numerous 3-4 per segment, polyembryonic, leaves fairly small, petiole slightly shorter than average, slightly winged. Shape of fruit, color and seediness plus quality are against commercial use in US.

2/23/1988, EMN: Flavor somewhat lemon-like but sweeter. Tanaka lists this with the sour orange hybrids and this is probably as good a place to house it as anywhere.

3/3/2008, DK & TS: Tree on Carrizo is much larger than the one on C-35. Prominent neck, pebbly yellow rind; flesh yellow to medium orange, tender, seedy, sweet; albedo thin, spongy; peels easily; flavor reminiscent of sweet orange and grapefruit. Pleasant; Toni likes it. Is this really a sour orange hybrid?

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

"Fruit medium-sized and obovoid; collar or neck prominent; rind medium-thick, yellow, coarsely pebbled, somewhat bumpy, and easily removed, with tendency to re-green.  Flesh moderately juicy and flavor good.  Late maturity.
      Sanbô is an old Japanese fruit of unknown origin, first described in 1848, that is still popular and grown mainly in Wakayama Prefecture."

Availability: Not commercially available in California.