Flora of New Zealand Series

sweet orange

Glabrous tree to c. 10 m high with rather rounded crown and angular shoots. Spines confined to trunk, main branches and strong young vegetative shoots. Lvs strongly orange-scented. Petiole 1-2.5 cm long, narrowly winged, articulate at apex. Lamina 7-15 × 3.5-7 cm, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, entire or slightly crenulate; apex usually short-acuminate. Fls 1-few in the axils, fragrant. Calyx 3-4 mm long; lobes broad-ovate. Petals c. 2.3 cm long, elliptic, white. Stamens > 20. Fr. 5-7 cm diam., ± globose, 10-13-celled; exocarp (peel) bright orange, dotted with oil glands, c. 1 cm thick; pulp very sweet, orange; core of axis solid.

K.: north side of Raoul Id.

S. China 1983

In and around old plantations, but until recently wild plants have usually been killed when young by feral goats.

FL Jan-Dec.

Sweet oranges were introduced to Raoul in the last century and have thrived in cultivation. There are several cvs. Most wild plants are almost certainly derived from the navel orange group because many of the old cultivated parent trees belong to it.

Other Citrus spp. are prominent as cultivation relics in the old orchards on Raoul but all the bushes seen were probably originally planted. The main ones are: C. limon (L.) Burman f., lemon, C. medica L., citron, with very large knobbly yellow fr., and C. paradisi Macfad, grapefruit. Within N.Z. proper no Citrus spp. have been reliably reported wild, although C. aurantium L., sour orange, C. limon, especially cv. 'Meyer', Meyer lemon, C. reticulata Blanco, mandarin, tangerine or satsuma orange, and C. sinensis are very commonly grown in warmer North Id areas.