Mandarin orange is a small, rounded citrus tree grown for its sweet, easy-to-peel fruit. It needs warm, sunny conditions and protection from cold, which is its main limit.
Family
Rutaceae (Citrus family)
Grows as
Tree
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply when the top few centimetres of soil are dry, and keep the root zone evenly moist without waterlogging.
Soil
Well-drained, slightly acidic loam or a citrus potting mix.
Temperature
18–32 °C; protect below 5 °C, as the tree is damaged easily by cold.
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
China (Guangxi to Hunan and Jiangxi)
Climate
subtropical
About
A mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata), often simply called mandarin, is a small, rounded citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. The mandarin is small and oblate, unlike the roughly spherical sweet orange (which is a mandarin-pomelo hybrid). The taste is sweeter and stronger than the common orange. A ripe mandarin orange is firm to slightly soft, heavy for its size, and pebbly-skinned. The peel is thin and loose, with little white mesocarp, so they are usually easier to peel and to split into segments. Hybrids have these traits to lesser degrees. The mandarin orange is tender and is damaged easily by cold. It can be grown in tropical and subtropical areas.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mandarin orange by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.