The Bottom Line: Quick facts about oranges!
The Full Story:
- Orange is a type of berry (hesperidia to be exact)
- About 20% of the total crop of oranges is sold as whole fruit; the remainder is used in preparing orange juice, extracts, and preserves.
- An orange tree can grow to reach 30 feet and live for over a hundred years.
- Because Navel Oranges are seedless, they can’t reproduce through pollination and require “budding” or grafting to create new trees.
- Pummelos are the largest of all citrus fruit and the Chinese believe that eating Pummelos brings good luck, so they are popular during the Chinese New Year.
- Contrary to what most of us think, this fruit was not named for its color. Instead, the word orange comes from a transliteration of the sanskrit naranga. Which comes from the Tamil naru. Which means “fragrant.”
- In the 18th Century British sailors took sauerkraut and citrus fruits on the ships to prevent scurvy.
- Oranges and orange blossoms are a symbol of love.
- Oranges were known as the fruits of the Gods. They were often referred as the ‘golden apples’ that Hercules stole.