Fruit Tree

It has to be Tangerine. Apples are awesome, bananas are brilliant, cherries are cute (fabulous blossom too), damsons are delicious, entawaks are exotic (look them up), figs are flavoursome, greengages are groovy... I could go on through the alphabet... but tangerines are the tops.

Let's get the etymology out of the way first. It ought to come as no surprise that tangerine was originally an adjective meaning 'of Tangier', the Moroccan seaport from which the fruit was first shipped, given that it grows in that region of the north African country. It was in fact once known scientifically as 'Citrus nobilis var. tangeriana', though its modern binomial is simply Citrus tangerina. The OED cites the first usage of tangerine from an edition of The Tatler in 1710. Morocco to this day is still the fourth largest producer of tangerines behind China (the world's biggest grower, though their variety is more commonly known as mandarin), Spain and Türkiye.

Tangerines

As for the fruit itself, tangerines are smaller and less spherical than oranges. A ripe tangerine has a slightly pitted, soft thin skin, is usually easy to peel, and the flesh inside tastes stronger and sweeter than an orange. Tangerines are great thirst-quenchers, being 85% water, 13% carbohydrate (fructose and glucose) and 2% fibre and protein. They are rich in vitamins A and C. One small tangerine provides about a third of the recommended daily vitamin C intake. Eat three a day and you'll never be a scurvy knave. They are also virtually fat-free. 

Tangerines are easier to grow than many other citrus fruits. They can even be grown in containers indoors. They require these key components:

- a mineral rich soil that does not decompose, and contains live microbials

- organic fertiliser without synthetic salts

- regular watering to keep soil moist but never waterlogged

- a minimum 6 to 8 hours of sunshine during the growing period (May to September in our hemisphere)

- a temperature than never drops below freezing

Tangerine trees take four years to reach maturity and start fruiting. They can eventually grow up to 15 feet tall, but can be kept more compact (6 to 8 feet) in a container or if pruned regularly. A healthy tangerine tree can produce up to 100 lbs or 45 kilos of fruit each season and will continue to fruit for up to fifty years if well maintained.

well maintained tangerine trees

Who recalls as a child finding a tangerine at the bottom of one's Christmas stocking? Apparently it's a tradition that goes right back to the 13th-century when French nuns would leave stockings full of fruit, nuts and tangerines at the houses of the poor at Christmas. It's certainly the case that the giving of tangerines as gifts to family and friends at the tail end of the year is an honoured tradition in China and Japan, the fruit and the colour being symbols of good luck and happiness.

 

The colour tangerine (as separate from orange) didn't appear in print until 1899. As an historical back note, even the word orange was a latecomer to the official spectrum of recognised colours. Until the arrival of oranges in 13th century Europe (brought to Spain from Persia by Arabs), and the naming of the colour after the fruit (nārang in Persian which became naranja in Spanish, with "have a naranja" eventually morphing into "have an orange" in English), objects of a shade between red and yellow were always described by the compound word reddish-yellow or yellowish-red (geoluhread in Old English).

Nowadays, tangerine, also known as 'vibrant orange', has a hex designation #f28500 in computer graphics and a Pantone number 15-1247 in the painting and printing trades. And we in the jewel of the north are very proud that our local football team plays in tangerine (not orange) and white, a tradition which actually began in 1923, before which time Blackpool played in a variety of fairly ordinary red or blue kits. It is not unusual to hear or read us being referred to as the Tangerines, as well as the Seasiders.

And so to my latest poem, which also lends its name to the title of my upcoming second collection due some time in the spring. More on that later. For now, I give you...

Tangerine

Sitting in the shade of this tangerine tree

a quiet hour devouring you page by page
my false bride, your Christmas stockings
eyes of night dimpled smile lips as bright

as morning sunlight striking citrus.  Folies

fade in memory. Your hex code printed on

emotions soft and slow to ripen till waxen

peel yields up its mist of essential oil, zest

as promise of cool flesh in segments fresh

and full which pressed to bursting squirt a
sweetness on my tongue. The tang itself of
life, of love, reveals in complex favours by

degrees, a liquid fire to quench such lusting
as is chaptered within. End of my questing,
just rind and spit pips attesting you’ve won
an unintentioned heart. Love you tangerine.

I couldn't write on the subject of fruit trees without leaving a small musical bonus in the form of Nick Drake's beautiful song: Fruit Tree from the LP 'Five Leaves Left'. It might have been inspired by his visit to Morocco in 1967.Just click on the song title to activate the YouTube link. Enjoy.

 

Thanks for reading. Up the mighty Pool. S ;-)