Spadifora (Spatafora) citron

Citrus medica L.

CRC 3535

PI 539433

Photos by David Karp, CVC,  12/5/2006. Photo rights.

Source: Received as budwood from John Carpenter, USDA Date & Citrus Station, Indio, Ca, 1966. Open pollinated seedling

Parentage/origins: Parents unknown

Rootstocks of accession: Yuma Ponderosa lemon

Season of ripeness at Riverside: November to January

Notes and observations:

12/2/1987, EMN: Seed came from CRC #2894. A medium-large citron. Some elongate fruit but most are stubby, almost round. Yellow rind, very bumpy, deeply furrowed especially at the stem end. Very thick rind, very seedy; flesh dry, coarse, and almost tasteless; bland and slightly sweet. 

12/5/2006, DK & TS: Spadifora [probably should be spelled Spatafora] citron, an Italian variety named after the Spatafora family of Sicily, and depicted in Ferrari's Hesperides (1646), where it is called a lemon-citron hybrid. Ferrari says that this variety has dry, sharp flesh, but the CVC specimen is acidless; it has a citron aftertaste. The thick, yellow rind is aromatic, but bitter. The fruit is stubby in shape; lumpy and bumpy, and very seedy.

Availability: Not commercially available in California.

USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network page for Spadifora citron