Mandarin Orange

Mandarin orange

A mandarin orange, often simply called mandarin, is a small, rounded citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. The mandarin is small and oblate, unlike the roughly spherical sweet orange. The taste is sweeter and stronger than the common orange. A ripe mandarin orange is firm to slightly soft, heavy for its size, and pebbly-skinned. The peel is thin and loose, with little white mesocarp, so they are usually easier to peel and to split into segments. Hybrids have these traits to lesser degrees. The mandarin orange is tender and is damaged easily by cold. It can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas.

Orange (fruit)

The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange, is the fruit of a tree in the family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid Citrus × sinensis, between the pomelo and the mandarin orange. The chloroplast genome, and therefore the maternal line, is that of pomelo. Hybrids of the sweet orange form later types of mandarin and the grapefruit. The sweet orange has had its full genome sequenced.

Orange (colour)

Orange is the colour between yellow and red on the spectrum of visible light. The human eyes perceive orange when observing light with a dominant wavelength between roughly 585 and 620 nanometres. In traditional colour theory, it is a secondary colour of pigments, produced by mixing yellow and red. In the RGB colour model, it is a tertiary colour. It is named after the fruit of the same name.

mandarin orange

Noun

1. A small citrus tree (Citrus reticulata) with oblate fruits smaller than the (so-named) sweet oranges.
2. The fruit of this tree; in loose, informal usage, the term may include other similar citrus fruits such as Citrus unshiu (satsuma or mikan).