Varieties
Florida has grown citrus since the 16th century, with Spanish explorers and missionaries being credited with planting the first citrus trees in the State. Over time, Florida’s genetic diversity of citrus increased dramatically, with the citrus breeding efforts at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Citrus Research and Education Center (UF/IFAS CREC) playing a key role in this development. From going on expeditions to (legally) bring in unique and exotic citrus accessions from other countries for breeding to hybridizing, developing, and selecting cultivated varieties (cultivars) for Florida’s growers, packers, processors, and the public, citrus breeders at UF/IFAS have led the way to identify cultivars that can be both productive and delicious in the HLB environment. The genetic diversity of a crop species is known as germplasm, and germplasm is used for conventional breeding and other plant improvement methods to create more productive and profitable cultivars for growers. Some of the citrus varieties released by UF/IFAS have been subjected to advanced technologies such as somatic hybridization and somaclonal variation selection from tissue culture to tree. The University of Florida’s breeding program has released many varieties of citrus, both scions and rootstocks, that have been successfully grown by growers, including sweet oranges, mandarins, grapefruit, lemons, pummelo, and other specialty citrus types. Citrus is of significant historical and cultural importance to Florida, the orange juice and grapefruit industries are known worldwide and have comprised a multibillion industry for decades. This website contains information about the citrus varieties grown in Florida and provides stakeholders with a resource to aid in cultivar selection.
