Villafranca

Synonyms

Corona Foothill Eureka, Foothill, Laidlaw (sec. Cottin 2002)

Cultivar or taxon

Citrus x limon (L.) Osbeck, pro sp. (sensu Mabberley 1997, Bayer et al. 2009); Citrus limon (L.) Burm. f. [=Citrus x limon (L.) Osbeck, pro sp.] (sensu Swingle and Reece 1967)

Origin

Hodgson (1967) noted that Villafranca was "Said to be of Sicilian origin, [and] was introduced into Florida by H. S. Sanford about 1875 and brought to California not long thereafter.

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 short; wings absent. Leaflets one, margin bluntly toothed, shade leaflet blades flat or weakly conduplicate, sun leaflet blades weakly conduplicate. Scent of crushed leaflets freshly lemon-like. Fruit as broad as long or longer than broad; rind green-yellow (6), yellow (7-10), yellow-orange (11), or orange (12); rind texture slightly rough (4-5); firmness leathery; navel absent; flesh yellow; taste sour.

Hodgson (1967) provides the following additional information on Villafranca:

"Fruit indistinguishable from Eureka, but seasonal distribution of crop more like Lisbon, mainly in winter.

Tree similar to Lisbon, but more open and less upright in growth habit, less thorny, and not as densely foliated."

Hodgson (1967) additionally notes that Villafranca's characteristics are intermediate between Eureka and Lisbon, but leaning towards Lisbon.

Notes

Hodgson (1967) additionally notes that: "...the original clone has been little propagated commercially in California, or elsewhere so far as can be ascertained, for many of decades. Indeed, Villafranca is currently of so little importance as scarcely to warrant inclusion [in Hodgson 1967]. The only reason for including it lies in the fact that certain clones with characteristics intermediate between Eureka and Lisbon have been propagated as selections of those varieties. Almost certainly several of those currently of importance in California—notably the so-called Galligan Lisbon and Corona Foothill Eureka selections—are in reality Villafranca selections. This may conceivably be true also of the popular so-called Rosenberger Lisbon and Ross Eureka selections.

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.

Webber, H.J. 1943. Cultivated varieties of citrus. In: Webber, H.J. and L.D. Batchelor (eds.). The Citrus industry. I: 475-668. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Resources

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