Mandarins, one of the most popular winter fruits, not only brighten up our tables with their sweet and refreshing taste, but they also hide a fascinating evolutionary history behind their attractive appearance. What we enjoy today as an indispensable fruit in the Mediterranean diet is the result of millions of years of adaptations, genetic mutations and the influence of various cultures throughout history.
From the Asian mountains to the Mediterranean orchards, Mandarins have come an amazing way to become the fruit we know today. This journey has been the subject of recent scientific research, uncovering details that link its origin to global climate changes, random mutations and a genetic promiscuity unmatched in the plant kingdom.
The ancient origin of mandarins
The journey of mandarin oranges begins in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a region that encompasses parts of China, India and Myanmar. About eight million years ago, a global climate change forced the primitive citrus trees to migrate, initiating a process of diversification that gave rise to the first species of mandarin. It is surprising to think that these ancestors were inedible, very different from the current varieties.
In this context, ancestral mandarins began to differentiate in the Nanling Mountains, in present-day southern China. There, approximately 1,6 million years ago, a curious mutation marked a before and after: the development of the gene that allows the apomixisThis process of asexual reproduction allowed plants to produce exact clones of themselves, making it easier for farmers to perpetuate the best specimens without having to mix genes.
The apomixis revolution
Apomixis was a revolution for early farmers, who found in this trait a way to perpetuate their favorite trees without leaving room for the “genetic lottery.” All modern edible mandarins—as well as other citrus varieties such as oranges and lemons— They owe part of their commercial success to this miraculous mutation that arose naturally. and spread to related species through human intervention.
However, this phenomenon not only benefited its cultivation. It also allowed the creation of authentic genetic mosaics, since the Citrus are extremely prone to crossbreeding with each other. For example, the sweet orange was born from the cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine, while the lemon comes, in part, from the cross between a bitter orange and the citron.
Mandarins arrive in the Mediterranean
The next chapter in the history of the tangerines takes us to the Yangtze River in China, where some 4.000 years ago a crucial cross between a pomelo tree and an ancient mandarin orange occurred.This event reduced the acidity of the fruit, increased its sweetness and gave rise to even more attractive edible varieties. Later, thanks to the expansion of Islam and trade routes, citrus fruits began to migrate towards the Mediterranean.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Muslims introduced bitter oranges to Al-Andalus, which still decorate many Spanish streets today. However, it was not until the 15th and 16th centuries that sweet oranges arrived on board Portuguese ships. Finally, in the 19th century, the mandarin proper made its debut in Europe, brought from Canton (China).
Modern varieties and spontaneous mutations
Among the most notable modern varieties are the clementines, a natural mutation that first occurred in Algeria around 1890. These sweeter and easier to peel mandarins were born in an orchard of Father Clément Rodier, from whom they took their name. Years later, in 1953, another spontaneous mutation in a tree in Castellón gave rise to the famous mandarins. Clemenules, the most cultivated variety in Spain today.
Other varieties arise from more recent crosses, such as the Clemenville, a hybrid between a clementine and a tangelo, or the orogrande, a descendant of the Clemenules. These new varieties not only offer larger and sweeter fruits, but are also designed to better resist pests and diseases.
Current challenges: the Yellow Dragon
Despite all these advances, citrus cultivation faces a serious threat: Huanglongbing or Yellow Dragon. This bacterial disease, transmitted by an insect, has already devastated plantations in America, Asia and Africa. Although it has not yet reached Spain, experts are on high alert. It is currently known that the species Citrus ryukyuensis Found in Japan, it resists this disease, so it could be the key to creating resistant citrus.
Understanding the genetic history of mandarins, and of citrus fruits in general, not only connects us with their ancient past, but also opens the door to innovations that could protect global citrus farming from these types of threats.
With every bite of a tangerine, Not only do we enjoy exceptional flavor, but we also We participate in its amazing evolutionary and cultural historyFrom the first mutations in the Asian mountains to modern advances in agricultural genetics, mandarins are a living testimony to the interaction between nature, science and humanity.