Pomelo

Hirado Buntan, red-fleshed grapefruit (Citrus maxima)

The pomelo ( Citrus maxima latin for " largest lemon" ), an evergreen tree that produces the largest citrus fruit. The plant is one of the diamond plants and is native to tropical Southeast Asia.

Important it is as a parent of such well-known fruits such as orange, grapefruit or pomelo. Colloquially usually do not distinguish between grapefruit and grapefruit.

Description

The grapefruit is a medium sized, evergreen tree. Young twigs are slightly hairy and reddish in color. In the leaf axils are thorns. The leaves are large in comparison to other citrus crops; the underside is slightly hairy. The petiole is enlarged ( winged ). The leaf tip is rounded, the base of the leaf overlapping round to heart-shaped and with the winged petiole.

The large flowers appear singly or in inflorescences aged men with up to 20 flowers in the leaf axils. The flower buds are white or reddish. The flower consists of five fused sepals and five free petals. In the center of the flower there are 20 to 35 stamens and round ovary. The style is distinct from the ovary.

The fruits ( Hesperidien ) are flattened or round to slightly pear-shaped. They are composed of ten to 15 segments. The shell is thick and the outside colored yellow or yellow- green. The central axis of the fruit is hollow at maturity, and the skin ( endocarp ), which encloses the individual segments, is open towards the middle. The outer shell can be easily removed and also the individual segments can be peeled. The segments are called juice sacs that are surrounded in the grapefruit of pretty solid cuticle and not burst on cutting the fruit. There are many varieties with pigmented pink to red meat fruits caused by the carotenoid lycopene, which accumulates at high summer temperatures in the juice sacs. In some varieties, the fruit can be up to 30 cm in diameter are large and reach a weight of about two kilograms. The seeds can, depending on the variety, very numerous (up to 200 per fruit ) or even non-existent. They are large, irregularly shaped and grooved, inside whitish.

Name

The name " grapefruit " was (possibly under the influence of the French pamplemousse ) taken in the 18th century from Dutch into German. As pompelmoes or pampelmoes it can be detected in the Netherlands since 1648. While Marzell 1943 still writes that even the Tamil pampalimāsu came from the Netherlands, is among other things the "Nederlands Etymologically Woordenboek " conversely assume that the Dutch word from the Tamil dates - which simply due to the obvious meaning of the word in Tamil (namely " large citrus fruit " ) is close. The Dutch pompelmoes seems to be an attempt to adapt the Tamil name to the Dutch language. The first part of the word may be an adaptation to pompoen, " pumpkin ", but also has similarities with the Dutch Pompeo (see pompous ) or the POMPEL contained in earlier compositions, probably same as significant. The second part is similar - under Hinweglassung the syllable li - the Portuguese word Limões, " lemons " (plural of limão ), is quoted by the always wrong, that it is a Malay word. Not impossible is therefore that the Dutch word pompelmoes on a detour through the Portuguese - about in line with pomposos Limões, " pompous lemon " - was derived from the Tamil original. In the literature there are also the terms " paradise apple" and " Adam's apple ".

What is colloquially known as a grapefruit on the market and is mostly a grapefruit that has originated from a cross of grapefruit with an orange. Increasingly replaced the term " grapefruit " in the German language the name " grapefruit ".

The intersection with the mandarin orange is called. The backcross of orange and grapefruit, the grapefruit.

In English, the grapefruit is called Pomelo, Pummelo or Shaddock, while the grapefruit is known as pomelo in Spanish and French.