Siamese acidless pummelo

Citrus maxima (Burm.) Merr.

CRC 2240

PI 539355  

VI 443 (No longer available)

Photos by Toni Siebert and David Karp, CVC. Photo rights.

Source: Received as a live plant from the CPB, 1930.

Parentage/origins: Parents unknown.

Rootstocks of accession: Carrizo citrange, C-35 citrange

Season of ripeness at Riverside: Unknown.

Notes and observations:

OJB: Siamese Sweet pummelo is an essentially acidless variety of pummelo.The tree is small in stature with drooping branches.  The fruits are oblate with a slightly rough yellow rind.  The flavor is insipid. Siamese Sweet pummelo has been used extensively in breeding programs and is the seed parent of Oroblanco and Melogold pummelo-grapefruit hybrids, Chandler pummelo, and Cocktail pummelo-mandarin hybrid.  It is mature in the winter and holds well on the tree.

Description from The Citrus Industry Vol. 1 (1967):

"At least two clones of the non-acid (hence sweet) pummelo group are known and there are doubtless others.
      The clone known in the United States was introduced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1930 and was received by the Citrus Research Center, Riverside, California, under the name Siamese Sweet (CES 2240).
      The tree is typical of the Siamese group in all respects—dwarf and drooping, with round-pointed leaves and densely pubescent twigs and new shoot growth.  The fruits are oblate to broadly obovoid, with large, crisp, easily separable juice sacs lacking in juice, and insipidly sweet with a trace of bitterness.  Siamese Sweet is of horticultural interest primarily as a curiosity and also because it is the seed parent of the recently released Chandler variety (Cameron and Soost, 1961)."

Availability: No longer commercially available in California. This accession no longer has an approved budsource. Please refer to the CCPP for information on another approved budsource or to start a reintroduction inquiry.

USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network page for Siamese acidless pummelo