Citrus - Mandarin Emperor Citrus reticulata Grafted

The description the Riverside collection quotes gives Emperor's tree and fruit, not its culture: a moderately vigorous and productive tree, medium-sized, upright and broad-spreading, virtually thornless, whose fruit matures in early midseason. No reference read gives Australian months for that season. The description says Emperor was still grown in seedling orchards in the Paterson River district of coastal New South Wales, and that its seeds are polyembryonic. The collection's own tree is a seedling of the Scarlet Emperor line and its page is headed with that name; what is given on this page is the quoted description of Emperor, which treats Scarlet as a separate old Australian variety.

Beyond that, the one other reference read is the CSIRO rainforest key, which describes the mandarin species and not Emperor: it usually flowers and fruits as a shrub of 2 to 4 m and occasionally grows into a small tree, its leaves very aromatic when crushed and its flowers pleasantly perfumed, and it is an introduced plant occasionally found naturalised in north-east Queensland. The 2 to 4 m on the facts card is that species figure; the description calls Emperor's tree medium-sized and gives no number. No reference read gives Emperor a sun, soil, water or frost note.

Emperor is a mandarin grown for its fruit, and the 1967 description places it widely. It cites a 1956 account that Emperor was probably the leading mandarin variety in Australia, and reports the view of a former New South Wales government citrus specialist that Emperor is very similar to, if not identical with, Oneco of Florida and Ponkan of China, and says it was also grown to a limited extent in South Africa and north-west India. The description traces two other varieties to it: Late Emperor, said to have begun as a limb sport, and the South African Empress, reported to be a chance seedling. The Riverside collection's page for Imperial names Emperor as a possible parent of that extremely early variety. No reference read gives a spread or a planting centre for Emperor.

The HortOS listing names Emperor as a grafted tree, and 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 drawbacks the description the collection quotes gives are moderately numerous seeds and fruit that loses quality rapidly if stored on the tree much past maturity.