Sweet Orange (පැණි දොඩම්)

A native of China or Cochin-China. It was taken to Europe in the second half of the 15th century. Columbus in 1493, took orange seeds to Haiti from where it spread to the West Indies, Mexico and Florida (Purseglove, 1968). It is a common tree in the village gardens in Sri Lanka. It grows best in the dry zone where low atmospheric
humidity and a definite dry period aids growth and maturity of fruits. According to the literature, orange has grown in Sri Lankan home gardens from long ago.

Flower : Regular, bisexual, usually solitary, sometimes 2-6 flowered in axillary peduncles shorter than the petioles, white, fragrant. (Flowers in April to May).

Fruit : A large rounded berry 9-11 chambered, the loculi packed with soft tissue of large, irregular, fusiform, horizontal, loosely connected cells or vesicles, filled with sweet juice, the dissepiments very thin, membranous, the axis spongy, pericarp thin, spongy, externally smooth, slightly irregular due to the numerous projecting oil cysts below the epidermis.

Seed : Several in each chamber, horizontal, oblong-ovoid, somewhat compressed with a blunt pointed apex and somewhat truncate at the hilum, testa soft, pale yellow, veiny and exalbuminous.
Uses : Used as a refreshing juice to drink.

Height : Average height of 9 to 10 m (30 to 33 ft)

Leaves : Simple, alternate, often with short, solitary, sharp spines in the axils, oval

or ovate-oblong, acute, articulated on the petiole.