[conspire] Japanese Citrus

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Last night, someone mentioned a special variety of citrus that is popular in Japan.  Can I get the name of that fruit so I can look for it?

Just in case you don't get a direct answer, here's an Internet resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_citrus

  A number of citrus fruits are grown in or strongly associated with
  Japan. [...]

On a related note, I'm still hopeful that my young Calamansi tree 
-- a citrus variant strongly associated with the Philippine Islands --
will bear fruit.  I've become an avid fan of Calamansi juice
concentrate, which is available in many South Bay markets catering to 
our local Filipino communtity.

Recently, a Kaiser Foundation nurse (from the Philippines) and I were 
chatting, and I surprised the heck out of her by saying I was not only a
huge fan of the fruit but had a young tree in my yard.  She was able to
reassure me that producing fruit takes a few years of growth, first.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamondin


FWIW, studying the history of citrus varieties, one comes across endless
surprises, e.g., that the orange is not a natural (wild) fruit, was
created by Chinese growers as a hybrid cross between mandarins and
pomelos, and didn't make it to Europe _at all_ until the Arab conquest
brought it to southern Spain in the 10th Century.

This possibly explains the classical Greeks' obsession in their
folk legends with a wondrous and never-seen thing they called a
'golden apple' -- χρυσομηλιά, adopted into Latin as 'pomum aurantium'.
Probably, traders who'd seen oranges in China visited Greece and tried
to describe them:  'Well, you have apples, here, right?  OK, then
imagine a fruit about the size of an apple, and sweet and zesty sort of
like an apple, but golden like the sun, both inside and out.'  'Wow!'

In Europe outside Spain (and Sicily), oranges remained an exotic novelty 
for hundreds of years -- and such a status symbol among wealthy nobles
that the competed as to who would have the grandest 'orangeries'
(private enclosed orchards of orange trees).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangery

Naturally, Louis XIV was winner of the 'my orangerie is much bigger and
fancier than yours' contest:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_Orangerie