Citrus - Kumquat Nagami Citrus japonica Nagami (syn. Fortunella)

The Riverside collection's page gives the Nagami kumquat's tree and fruit and two growing notes, all from California. It calls the trees remarkably cold-hardy, because they tend to go semi-dormant from late autumn to early spring; no Australian reference read gives a frost figure. It says kumquat trees are especially susceptible to zinc deficiency, which can cause small leaves and shortened internodes. Flowering is in summer, it says, and the fruits mature in late winter and hold well on the tree; in its own orchard it records ripe fruit year round.

The 1967 description the collection quotes calls the Nagami vigorous and prolific, with a comparatively large leaf and tree for a kumquat, fruit of good size, deep colour and pleasant flavour, and a rind oil somewhat more pronounced than in other kumquats. The collection's own tree is budded on Carrizo citrange.

No reference read gives a height in metres, a spread, a sun, soil or water note, the colour of the flower, whether the tree has thorns, or Australian climate zones for Nagami. No Australian reference was read for its status in Australia: the exotic status on the facts card rests on the Japanese origin the 1967 description gives, not on an Australian list.

The whole fruit is eaten, by the collection, and it holds about five or six seeds in normally four or five segments. Kumquats are acid fruits popular in Asian countries, especially China, it says, and the description the collection quotes calls the Nagami much the most popular variety in both the Orient and the United States, the Naga or Nagami kinkan of Japan and the form that first reached the West. The collection's page for calamondin, which it believes has kumquat in its parentage, quotes the same work: calamondin makes an excellent rootstock for the oval or Nagami kumquat when that is grown as calamondin then was in the United States, as a potted or tubbed plant in fruit. No reference read gives a planting centre.

The HortOS listing carries this kumquat as Citrus japonica Nagami, with Fortunella as a synonym. The Riverside collection files it as Fortunella margarita, and GBIF treats that name as a synonym of Citrus japonica, so the two names are one species. The table above shows the sizes growers list. What to look for in the roots, stem and canopy of nursery stock is in the HortOS nursery plant quality guide. Stock crossing a state border travels under the state and territory biosecurity rules on moving plants and soil. The one problem the collection names is zinc deficiency; the gaps are a height and any soil or water note.