| Latin Name : | Citrus paradisii |
| English Name : | Grapefruit |
| French Name : | Pamplemousse rose, pomelo |
| Family : | Rutaceae |
| Origin : | Paraguay, Italy, India, South Africa |
History and origin
Citrus paradisii is a very popular citrus in the market. It is a large fruit that ranges in diameter from approximately 10 to 15 cm, with a yellow or pink peel when ripe. However, the fruit is very much smaller than the pomelo fruit, Citrus maxima syn. Citrus grandis. When discovered in the Antilles around 18th century, the pomelo was considered as a mutation of Citrus grandis. Then, in 1847, James Mac Fayden, in his book Flore de la Jamaïque, gave it its botanical name Citrus paradisii. From 1948, one started to suspect that pomelo was in fact a hybrid of Citrus maxima x Citrus sinensis, i.e. a hybrid of grapefruit and orange. Moreover, its botanical name appears more and more often written in order to reflect this hybrid status: Citrus x paradisii.
Grapefruit tree is mainly grown in North America (Florida, California, Texas), in Brazil, in the Antilles an in Israel. Pink grapefruit is a cross between pomelo and sweet orange. Its fruit, with a thin yellow to pink peel is an edible berry slightly sweet made of a dozen of sections. It grows in bunches, hence its English name "grapefruit".