A navel orange has a partially formed undeveloped fruit like indent, located at the blossom end of the fruit. From the outside, the blossom end is reminiscent of a human navel, leading to the common name of "navel orange." These oranges are among the most common and popular of orange varieties, considered the world’s finest orange for eating.

In America the navel orange has been known as a Washington, Riverside, or Bahia Navel Orange. Citrus Sinensis is the Latin name. This orange variety is the result of a single mutation which occurred on a plantation in Brazil in 1820. The mutation led to the formation of a conjoined twin enclosed within the rind of a seedless orange, and it proved to be a hit, so people began cultivating it in other regions. The first American location of cultivation was Riverside, California, explaining the alternate name of "Riverside Orange". Because the navel orange is seedless, it can only be propagated through cuttings. Technically, every navel orange comes from the same orange tree; the Brazilian orange which generated a spontaneous mutation hundreds of years ago. The flesh of a navel orange is sweet and naturally very juicy it can be eaten out of hand, juiced, used in fruit salads, or turned into jams and preserves, depending on personal taste.

Orange Trivia

Sour varieties of oranges have been cultivated since well before the Middle Ages, the sweet ones appearing only in the 15th Century. From Southern Asia, the orange spread to Syria, Persia, Italy, Spain and Portugal, and then on a voyage of Columbus, to the West Indies. Spanish explorers took it to Florida and Spanish missionaries took it to California. The word "orange" stems from Arabic and Persian terms for the fruit.

Orange, common name for citrus fruit of several trees. Different varieties include the sweet orange, the sour, or Seville orange, and the mandarin orange, or tangerine, all rich in vitamin C. The fruit is technically a hesperidia, a kind of berry. It consists of several easily separated carpel's, or sections, each containing several seeds and many juice cells covered by a leathery exocarp, or skin, containing numerous oil glands.

Orange trees are evergreens, seldom exceeding 9 m (30 ft) in height. The leaves are oval and glossy and the flowers are white and fragrant.

Three essential oils are obtained from oranges: oil of orange, obtained from the rind of the fruit and used principally as a flavoring agent; oil of petigrain, obtained from the leaves and twigs and used in perfumery; and oil of neroli, obtained from the blossoms and used in flavorings and perfumes.

Oranges are of great commercial importance and are cultivated in warm regions, although they are native to south-eastern Asia.

Principal orange growing areas outside Europe and China include the southern United States, Israel, Brazil and South Africa. The sweet oranges are the most commonly grown. They include the common orange, the navel orange, and the blood orange.

The common orange, which includes the Valencia orange, is cultivated and sold as fresh fruit and is also the source of most orange juice.

The navel orange is seedless, less juicy than the common orange, and has a small second fruit growing at one end of the fruit. The skin and fruit of blood oranges range from pink to red, but they are similar in most other ways to common oranges.

The sour, or Seville, orange has a bitter taste and is rarely eaten fresh. It is cultivated to a limited extent for marmalade and to provide rootstock for less vigorous strains.

It was introduced to the Mediterranean region by the Arabs about the 10th century, and the sweet orange was introduced by Genoese traders in the 15th century.

The bergamot orange is primarily grown as a source of oils for cosmetics and flavoring.

Mandarin oranges or tangerines, belong to the same genus as oranges but are not really oranges. They are smaller in size, often slightly flattened in shape, and have easily peeled skin. The mandarin is the parent of a number of hybrids, such as the Clementine.

About 20 per cent of the total crop of oranges is sold as whole fruit; the remainder is used in preparing orange juice, extracts, and preserves. Oranges belong to the genus Citrus, of the family Rutaceae.

The sweet orange is classified as Citrus sinensis; the sour, or Seville, orange as Citrus aurantium; the bergamot orange as Citrus bergamia; and the mandarin orange, or tangerine, as Citrus reticulata.

Lemon, common name for a small thorny tree, and for its fruit. Lemon trees are cultivated throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, particularly in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and California Lemons were first brought from the Middle East to Spain and northern Africa during the Middle Ages. The cultivated lemon is probably a hybrid of two wild species, most likely lime and citron.

Lemon trees grow to be about 10 to 20 ft tall and are sparsely covered with foliage. The flower has five sepals, five petals, numerous stamens, and a solitary pistil. The upper surface of each petal is white, and the lower surface is pinkish. Lemon flowers have a sweet odor comparable to, but less marked than, the odor of orange flowers.

The lemon fruit is a pale-yellow, elliptically shaped berry, which usually has a small, nipple like protuberance at the apex. The exocarp layer is the leathery rind, containing oil of lemon, which is used in the manufacture of perfumes and lemon flavoring. The nearly tasteless, spongy, white layer beneath the rind is the mesocarp, which contains a substance called citrin or vitamin P. The pulp, which comprises the endocarp layer, consists of eight to ten segments containing small, pointed, yellowish white seeds.

Most cultivated lemon varieties are hybrids that produce little or no true bred seed. The trees are planted in fertile soil to which fertilizer is continually added. The rows are spaced 15 to 25 ft apart, depending on the variety planted and the climate and topography of the region. Except when extreme temperatures delay blooming, fruits are produced throughout the year. Green, almost ripe, fruit is picked from each tree six to ten times yearly and is ripened at moderately warm temperatures. Mature lemon trees may produce between 1,000 and 2,000 fruits per year. Lemon juice is used widely as a drink; as a constituent of drinks, salad dressings, and fish dressings; and as a flavoring. Lemon pulp was formerly used commercially in the manufacturing of citric acid, and is now used in making concentrated lemon juice, which is used medicinally for its high vitamin C content.

The lemon belongs to the family Rutaceae. It is classified as Citris limon

1654 - First orange and lemon trees arrive from St Helena and are planted in the gardens of the Dutch East India Company.

1666 - First citrus trees (lemons) picked in the Dutch East India Company gardens.

1890 - The success that American growers have in exporting citrus under refrigeration by ship to Europe creates opportunities for South African citrus growers.

1902 - The first known record of South African citrus having been shipped to England (based on a letter from Rudyard Kipling on the quality of fruit)

1906 - South African citrus displays win a gold medal at the Colonial Fruit Show in London.

1907 - The Transvaal government gives R600 toward the first practical test of shipping oranges to England.

1914 - The quality of the fruit exported is not always good and a Fruit Export Act is passed by the Union Parliament to enforce the inspection of export fruit.

1922 - The 51,515 boxes of citrus exported in 1919 grows to 247,419 boxes and doubles again by 1924. A Fruit Growers' Co-operative Exchange is formed to help growers co-ordinate the limited amount of shipping space available to them and to counteract the low prices that agents pay them for their fruit. They also aim to save costs by ordering packing material in bulk. The Exchange has three sub-boards that are responsible for Citrus, Deciduous Fruit and Pineapples. In the first year, a levy of 5 shillings per ton exported is used to finance the Exchange’s operations.

1925 - South African citrus exports reach the one million boxes mark. Fruit sometimes waits for weeks in the port for a ship and there are delays on route. The Government forms a Fruit Export Control Board to co-ordinate shipping.

1926 - Citrus growers increasingly feel that deciduous fruit exports get preferential treatment and are shipped more quickly. They break away from the Fruit Growers' Co-operative Exchange and form their own Citrus Exchange.

1930 - Citrus exports, which totalled 979,915 boxes in 1929, pass the one million boxes mark. A total of 1,706,803 boxes of citrus are exported.

1936 - Marketing ever-growing volumes of citrus makes it important to have a recognisable brandname. The Niven family, (descendants of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick – MP, citrus farmer and author of Jock of the Bushveld in 1907) gave their citrus brandname, OUTSPAN, to the Citrus Exchange for all its members to use. Members can, however, still use their own brandname if they want to.

1939 - The threat of less commercial shipping space because of World War 2 and the difficulty of marketing in wartime lead the Citrus Exchange to ask the government to establish a Citrus Board to control distribution, marketing and prices of citrus in South Africa and overseas. The Board consists of 12 members – 9 from the Citrus Exchange because 80% of citrus growers are its members; 2 who represent non-Exchange citrus growers; and 1 who represents the Government.

1955 - The Citrus Board stops applying the control measures instituted in the war years.

1961 - The citrus export sales were so poor in 1960 that many growers have to pay in to cover the costs of exporting the fruit. The Citrus Board limits the amount of citrus that is exported by introducing a quota (pro-rata) system. The Exchange advertises and promotes fruit juicing in South Africa to increase the consumption of the much larger volumes of citrus that are now sold in South Africa.

1962 - The Citrus Exchange establishes its own office in England and later sub-branches on the European Continent. Outspan becomes the only brandname under which the Exchange exports South African citrus. Advertising and promotions like the Outspan Girls and the Outspan Mobile Cars are very successful in making Outspan a well-known orange brand in Europe.

1966 - The Citrus Exchange asks Government to re-introduce one-channel marketing for citrus, mainly because its members feel that they pay large sums of money to develop the market for citrus and growers who are not members of the Exchange do not pay, but get the benefit of the market development.

1968 - The Citrus Exchange introduces a "Citruseal" certificant mark for pure orange juice. It persuades local dairies to sell their pure orange juice under this mark, which further helps consumption.

1973/4 - Outspan Citrus Centre formed in reaction to addressing increasing problems with fruit quality and very basic number of citrus cultivars that are marketed.

1992 - Outspan International (Pty) Ltd is formed as a subsidiary of the Citrus Exchange.

1994 - The control measures used for local marketing of citrus cease.

The Citrus Exchange changes its status to that of a company and is now known as Outspan International Ltd.

1997 - All the fruit industries in South Africa are de-regulated. Anyone may now apply to register as an export agent.

1998 - The South African Citrus Growers Association is formed to manage research projects on behalf of all citrus growers and to keep a register of citrus growers. It is funded by voluntary levies paid by the growers.

1998 - Outspan International and Unifruco Limited amalgamate as Capespan International Ltd. They are still the largest single exporter of South African fruit.

1999 - The number of fruit export agents in South Africa has grown to over 160. The Fresh Produce Exporters Forum is formed by export agents to address problems like agents competing against each other overseas, which results in some markets being over-supplied and poorer prices for the growers.

2001 - Not all the growers pay the voluntary levy to the Citrus Growers Association.

Government approves an application from the CGA for a statutory levy on all export citrus to fund research and market development.

Outspan Citrus Centre is taken over by Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa and the name changes to Citrus Research International.

After a disastrous citrus season in 2000, Citrus S.A. is formed by a group of concerned citrus growers. For a membership fee and an additional voluntary levy, members are provided with market access information to improve the prices received on the overseas markets.

2002 - The Outspan Foundation Block is taken over by the Citrus Growers Association.

Fruit S.A. links with DFPT , FPEF, SAAGA and CGA in order to co-ordinate joint actions in the areas of market development; transformation and education; market access; and information and logistics.

2003 - A Transformation Manager is appointed to steer the citrus industry along the path of commitment to assisting the emerging farmers and previously disadvantaged individuals financially and technically in their bid to become successful citrus farmers and to ensure the smooth re-distribution of land where the opportunity arises.