Top 5 Secret things about Oranges
Welcome to our comprehensive guide to the citrus sensation: oranges! Bursting with flavor and brimming with nutritional benefits, oranges are not only a staple fruit but also an icon of freshness and vitality. In this article, we delve into the top five fascinating facts about oranges, uncovering the secrets behind their vibrant hue, exploring their rich history, and unveiling their numerous health perks. From their ancient origins to their modern-day significance, join us as we peel back the layers of this beloved fruit to discover what makes oranges so extraordinary. Whether you’re a fruit aficionado or simply curious about the wonders of nature’s bounty, prepare to be amazed by the remarkable world of oranges!
wikipedia about orange ↵
1. Oranges Don’t Naturally Exist In Nature
Oranges are a hybrid of two citrus fruit: a pomelo and a mandarin, with 25% of its genome coming from the pomelo and 75% from the mandarin.
Looking at an orange this makes a lot of sense, as the pomelo is a large green citrus fruit with tough skin and fibrous flesh while the mandarin is thin-skinned, bright orange and very sweet. The orange falls somewhere in between.
2. Not All Oranges Are Orange
As a subtropical fruit that grows in temperate climates oranges turn orange, but for those that are grown in the tropics their chlorophyll is preserved and they tend to remain green.
To get oranges the bright orange we see in stores the orange might be exposed to ethylene gas, coated in wax, and yes – even dyed.
There are over 400 different types of oranges worldwide, and many of these were developed in just the last 100 years. Oranges are actually a hybrid of the Pomelo and Mandarin, and are sometimes referred to as the Sweet Orange. They are native to Southern China, Northeast India, and Myanmar, and have been cultivated for over 2,000 years.
Today sweet oranges makeup about 70% of all citrus produced worldwide, and are the most cultivated tree in the world! Kudos to the humble orange. We are just going to look at some of the most common orange varieties (plus a few that aren’t so common). Have you heard of them all?
3. Orange The Fruit Was Named Way Before The Color
What came first, the orange or…orange? Did someone just make the un-creative decision to name the citrus fruit after its color? (That’s how the blueberry got its name, after all.) Or did the color get its name because of the fruit? In terms of perplexing origin stories, this one is right up there with the chicken vs. the egg. Luckily, though, this one is much more easily solved!
So which came first, the color or the fruit? The answer is…neither. Well, one did come before the other, but neither was actually the first meaning of the word. The linguistic ancestor to today’s word “orange” was actually first used to describe the tree that the fruit grows on. The word’s roots can be traced all the way back to Sanskrit. In that language, the word nāranga meant “orange tree.” Nāranga evolved into the Persian word nārang and the Arabic word nāranj. If you know Spanish, these old words might look very familiar—the modern Spanish word for “orange” is “naranja.”
As the word evolved, it eventually came to mean the fruit, not just the orange tree. Old French adapted the Arabic word nāranj as “pomme d’orenge” (“the fruit from the orange tree”) or just “orenge.” Speakers of Middle English adopted the phrase; the Middle English equivalent “pume orange” dates back to the 13th century AD.
The word didn’t come to describe a color until almost 200 years later, making the fruit the clear winner. In 1512, a description of the color using the word “orange” appeared—in a rather strange place. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the use of the word first appeared in…a will. Don’t want to throw out your orange peels? These orange peel uses may surprise you.
So, the only mystery that remains is…how did people describe the color before 1512? According to Huffington Post, speakers of Old English used the word geolurēad, meaning “yellow-red.” But thanks to an Old French word, the color orange has a name all its own. And a unique name, at that—”orange” doesn’t rhyme with any other word in English. We bet you didn’t know that these 10 words don’t either.
4. It Takes Almost 14 Gallons Of Water To Grow One Orange
We keep hearing about California’s years long drought and how imposed water limits are affecting crops in the state’s Central Valley. While almonds get villainized for using just over a gallon of water per nut, oranges, another popular crop in California, are far larger water hogs, requiring almost 14 gallons or around 50 glasses of water per fruit.
5. The Bigger The Navel, The Sweeter The Orange
Navel oranges are named because of the belly-button formation opposite the stem end. The bigger the navel in an orange, the sweeter it will generally be. The navel is actually the beginning of another orange… like a conjoined twin.
A navel orange is a type of orange
which has a little surprise inside—once
it is peeled you can see a partially
formed undeveloped fruit is located at
the blossom end of the fruit. From the
outside, the blossom end looks like a
person’s navel!
These oranges are cultivated primarily
in Brazil, California, Arizona, and
Florida, and they are among the most
common and popular of orange
varieties.
thank you for reading our Top 5 Secret things about Oranges article!
top orange recipe you can make in home!
Mom’s Easy Orange Cake
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Fresh Orange Juice
