Can Cross Pollination Effect the Flavour of Citrus

Correy says...
Hi Don,

This is a very interesting question and one that I had to ask a few people to understand.

Let me summarise your question.

Can the pollen of one type of citrus eg a grapefruit pollinate another type of citrus eg an orange and effect the flavour of the fruit.

The answer is No, Unless you eat the seed.

Let me explain.

When the bee takes the pollen of a grapefruit and pollinates an orange what happens is that the orange flower acting as a female in this case pollinates and this newly formed seed has the genetic make up of the grapefruit and the orange.

Now as this orange forms the flesh that forms around the seed is totally maternal or only from the orange tree. Similar to how in humans the water surrounding the baby in the womb is a product only of the mother.

So when the fruit is fully formed the orange flesh will always have the same flavour as the tree it is from. However the seed has half the genetic make up of the orange and half the genetic make up of the grapefruit which has developed into it's own totally unique new seed. Very similar to how half the chromosomes of the man and women form a totally unique baby with some characteristic's from both parents.


This is why you can't plant an orange seed and expect it to grow into an orange tree exactly like it's parent tree. It could be as in our case a mixture between a grapefruit and an orange.

Which bring us to another question what about Nuts where you are actually eating the seed? Is it possible that your scenario could effect the taste of a nut?

I think that the answer to this question is Yes in a few scenarios.

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Julie says...
I have Valencia orange, grapefruit and Navel orange not far from one another, plus an ex-grapefruit (now bush lemon stock). They taste the same from year to year, and have never affected each other.