Atwood

Synonyms

Atwood Early (sec. Cottin 2002); Atwood Old Budline (sec. NPGS/GRIN 2010)

Cultivar or taxon

Citrus x aurantium L., pro sp. [Sweet Orange Group] (sensu Mabberley 1997, Bayer et al. 2009); Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck (sensu Swingle and Reece 1967; sensu Tanaka sec. Cottin 2002)

Origin

Hodgson (1967) provided the following notes on Atwood: "According to Opitz (1962), Atwood originated as a limb sport in the orchard of Frank Atwood near Lemon Cove, California, and was first noticed about 1935."

Description

Crown compact or dense, not weeping. First-year twig surface glabrous; second- or third-year twig surface striate; thorns absent or not persistent; prickles absent or not persistent. Petiole glabrous, length medium, wings narrow and adjoining the blade. Leaflets one, margins bluntly toothed, shade leaflet blades weakly conduplicate, sun leaflet blades weakly conduplicate. Scent of crushed leaflets sweetly orange-like. Fruit as broad as long or longer than broad; rind yellow (7-10), yellow-orange (11), orange (12), or red-orange (13); rind texture slightly rough (4-5); firmness leathery; navel present; flesh orange; taste acidic-sweet.

Notes

Hodgson (1967) additionally indicated that: "The fruit and tree of the Atwood navel orange variety are virtually indistinguishable from the parent variety, Washington. The fruit colors slightly earlier and the rind surface appears to be somewhat smoother, however. While earlier maturity is suggested by its coloring behavior, the fruit stores on the tree especially well without appreciable loss of quality. During the early part of the season, however, its quality is not quite as good as that of the parent variety....It is considered to be promising in central California and has been planted to some extent there in recent years."

References

Bayer, R.J., D.J. Mabberley, C. Morton, C.H. Miller, I.K. Sharma, B.E. Pfeil, S. Rich, R. Hitchcock, and S. Sykes. 2009. A molecular phylogeny of the orange subfamily (Rutaceae: Aurantioideae) using nine cpDNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 96: 668–685.

Cottin, R. 2002. Citrus of the World: A citrus directory. Version 2.0. France: SRA INRA-CIRAD.

Mabberley, D.J. 1997. A classification for edible Citrus (Rutaceae). Telopea 7: 167–172.

Swingle, W.T. and P.C. Reece. 1967. The botany of Citrus and its wild relatives. In: Reuther, W., H.J. Webber, and L.D. Batchelor (eds.). The Citrus industry. Ed. 2. Vol. I. University of California, Riverside. http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol1/Chapter3.html.

Resources

Search for this cultivar in NCBI Entrez

Additional information on this cultivar at University of California: Riverside Citrus Variety Collection