Robin Meadows and Janet Byron enjoy identifying crops at 65 miles per hour, love to eat most of the fruits, vegetables and nuts grown in California, and are writing a field guide to California agriculture. Their latest is citrus fruits, which made their way to the Golden State with Spanish missionaries in the 1700s.

Photo credit: Ellen Levy Finch/WikiMediaCommons

by Robin Meadows and Janet Byron

Originally from southeast Asia, citrus trees are frost-sensitive and so thrive in much of California. Oranges, lemons and limes made their way here with Spanish missionaries in the 1700s, and the state’s first commercial orange and lemon orchards were planted in the Los Angeles basin in the mid-1800s. Today, California is the top producer of fresh citrus nationwide, growing the most fresh oranges, lemons and limes, and the second-most fresh tangerines and grapefruit.

Members of the rue family with other aromatic plants from kumquats to curry leaf trees, most citrus trees share a basic look: round with dense leaves and, depending on the time of year, star-shaped white flowers and brightly-colored fruits that pop against the evergreen foliage. While this makes them easy to identify as a group, it also makes it hard to tell the various types apart when they don’t have ripe fruit.

Luckily, the orchard’s location provides a clue…

To read the full article, visit Robin and Janet’s blog What’s That Crop.

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