Cultivation orange fruits
Bongsong · 9 months ago
The tree of the sweet orange often reaches 6 metres (20 feet) in height. The broad, glossy, evergreen leaves are medium-sized and ovate; the petioles (leafstalks) have narrow wings. Its white five-petaled flowers are very fragrant. The fruit is a modified berry known as a hesperidium, and the flesh is divided into segments called carpels. The usual shape of the sweet-orange fruit is round and the colour of its pulp orange, but there are variations. The mandarin, for example, is distinctly flattened, and the blood orange has red pulp. The pulp of the sweet orange is agreeably acidulous and sweet; the leathery peel is comparatively smooth; and the oil glands are convex. Oranges are picked when fully ripe, for, unlike some deciduous fruits, they do not ripen or improve in quality after being picked. The trees bear abundantly from 50 to 80 years or even more, and some old orange trees whose age must be reckoned by centuries still produce crops.
