Oranges are a hybrid of which two citrus fruits?

Oranges, as we know them today, did not exist in the wild, and would never have existed at all, without human intervention.

Many (if not most) people today enjoy juicy oranges, without realizing that an orange, (whether naval, valencia, or another variety) is actually a hybrid fruit. By definition, for a citrus fruit to be classified as an orange, it must be a cross of 75% mandarin (mandarine) and 25% pomelo (pummelo).

To confuse matters, despite being commonly called a “mandarin orange”, the mandarin is not really an orange at all, but simply a small, flat, sweet citrus fruit which happens to be orange in color. However, together with the pomelo (similar to a stringy, less bitter grapefruit with a thick rind), the pair are the ancestors of today’s oranges.

Although oranges are a staple crop in Florida, they aren’t native to the state. They are thought to have been brought to the Western Hemisphere by Spanish explorers. (Oddly enough, the valencia orange is not from Valencia, Spain, but was created in southern California in the mid-1800s.)

Oranges are believed to have originated in Southern China; the earliest mention of the sweet orange appears in Chinese literature from 314 BCE. Thereafter, traders introduced the orange to Europe and the Iberian Peninsula, where large-scale cultivation began in the 10th century; ancient, complex irrigation techniques specifically adapted to support orange orchards have been found there.