Details for: PI 539269, Citrus ×aurantium L. var. chrysocarpa (Hassk.) ined., Keraji

Notes from W.P. Bitters's trip to Japan 1963: "Very small fruit, yellow to yellowish brown, rind 3 mm thick, hollow core, 3 seeds, juicy, rich, very little rag, tangelo taste, appears polyembryonic, too small for commercial use, try as rootstock."

Small to medium sized mandarin, very puffy, sweet but very overripe now. (E.M. Nauer, 03/1987)

A strange mandarin. Very light orange, almost just dark yellow. Puffy, moderately rough rind. Peels and sections well. Flesh light orange, very juicy and sweet, almost acidless. Seeds large, about 1 per section. Section membranes very tough to chew. (E.M. Nauer, 01/18/1989)

Tanaka (1961) considers 'Kabuchi', 'Keraji', and 'Oto' to be "...three closely related cultigens...compris[ing] an isolated group ... characterized by yellow soft [skin] of very early maturity borne on twigs bearing distinctly winged broad [leaves]. Only the first is known in Japan mainland, as being cultivated in Kagoshima Pref. for a long time, while the last two are exclusively Okinawa Citrus." In addition to the previous description, Tanaka (1961) states that the seeds are polyembryonic and that "the aroma of the rind was very fragrant...[t]he pulp was extremely sweet, meaty, fragrant and almost without acidity, being very good quality." Yamamoto et al. (2004) collected fruit described as 'Keraji' from five locations and fruit labelled as 'Kabuchi' from seven locations. Three of the collections of 'Keraji' were found to be "'Keraji'-like" with smooth rind textures and few seeds, whereas the two other collections of 'Keraji' had fruit that were "'Kabuchi'-like" with rough rind textures and seedier fruit. Isozyme analysis showed the same pattern. Likewise, Tanaka (1961 pp. 92-96) described some differences in 'Keraji' fruit obtained from different geographic areas. Thus is appears that there is sometimes mis-identification of these two similar cultivars. At this time, the 'Kabuchi' accession is still in quarantine and it will be several years before it is released and its fruit evaluated and compared with the 'Keraji' accession. (R.R. Krueger, 2021-09-03)

Information and pictures of 'Keraji' from the University of California Riverside Citrus Variety Collection.