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Citrus fruit and plant

Citrus unshiu is a semi seedless and easy peeling citrus species, also known as the satsuma mandarin or Japanese mandarin. During the Edo period of Japan, kishu mikans were more popular because there was a popular superstition that eating Citrus unshiu without seeds made people prone to infertility. Citrus unshiu became popular in Japan after modernization started in the Meiji period. It is said to have originated in either Japan Genetic studies conducted in the 2010s suggest that the maternal species of Citrus unshiu is kishu (Citrus kinokuni) and the paternal species is kunenbo (Citrus nobilis Lour. var. kunip).

The unshiu is known as wēnzhōu mìgān in China, and mikan in Japan (or formally (温州蜜柑), the Japanese reading of the characters used in Chinese). In both languages, the name means "honey citrus of Wenzhou" (a city in Zhejiang province, China). An alternative Chinese name, wúhé jú , means "seedless mandarin". One of the English names for the fruit, satsuma, is derived from the former Satsuma Province in Japan, from which these fruits were first exported to the West.

Under the Tanaka classification system, Citrus unshiu is considered a separate species from the mandarin. Under the Swingle system, unshius are considered to be a group of mandarin varieties. Genetic analysis has shown the Satsuma to be a highly inbred mandarin pomelo hybrid, with 22% of its genome, a larger proportion than seen in most mandarins, coming from pomelo. It arose when a mandarin of the low pomelo Huanglingmiao or kishumikan variety (placed in C. reticulata by Tanaka) was crossed with a pomelo or pomelo hybrid, then the resulting cultivar was backcrossed with another Huanglingmiao or kishumikan mandarin.

Citrus unshiu is one of the sweetest citrus varieties. It is usually seedless, and is about the size of other mandarin oranges (Citrus reticulata). Satsumas are known for their loose, leathery skin; the fruit is very easily peeled in comparison to other citrus fruits. The rind is often smooth to slightly rough with the shape of a medium to small flattened sphere. Satsumas usually have 10 to 12 easily separable segments with tough membranes. The fruit became much more common in the United States starting in the late 19th century. In 1878 during the Meiji period, Owari mikans were brought to the United States from the Satsuma Province in Kyūshū, Japan, by Anna Van Valkenburgh, the spouse of the US Minister to Japan, General Van Valkenburgh, who renamed them satsumas. Between 1908 and 1911 about a million Owari mikan trees were imported throughout the lower Gulf Coast states. Owari is still commonly grown in Florida. There are, however, some hybrids.