kumquat

kumquat

, cumquat

1. any of several small Chinese trees of the rutaceous genus Fortunella

2. the small round orange fruit of such a tree, with a sweet rind, used in preserves and confections

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

kumquat

kumquat

Basically an orange the size of a grape. Small shrubby trees grow to 15 ft (5m), sometimes with thorns. Standard citrus leaves (dark glossy smooth green basic pointy shape. White citrus flowers. Orange-yellow grape-sized fruit is eaten whole and raw. The rind is sweet and the juicy inside is sour. Incredibly rich sources of health benefiting dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, flavonoid antioxidants, carotenes, lutein, and pigment anti-oxidants that contribute immensely to our health and wellness. The peel is rich in many essential oils, anti-oxidants, and fiber. Used for collagen synthesis, wound healing; anti-viral, anticancer activity, neuro-degenerative diseases, arthritis, diabetes, removes oxidant free-radicals from the body. Lots of B vitamins for metabolizing carbs, proteins and fats.

Edible Plant Guide © 2012 Markus Rothkranz

kumquat

[′kəm‚kwät]

(botany)

A citrus shrub or tree of the genus Fortunella in the order Sapindales grown for its small, flame- to orange-colored edible fruit having three to five locules filled with an acid pulp, and a sweet, pulpy rind.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Kumquat

 

(genus Fortunella), evergreen fruit trees or shrubs of the family Rutaceae. The leaves are small and dark green. The flowers are white, small, single or in clusters, and perfect. The fruit is up to 2 cm in diameter, round or oval, and yellow-orange in color, with a rind that is smooth, very fragrant, sweet, and edible; the pulp is sweet and acid.

Kumquat is quite frost-resistant (surviving short-term frosts up to 12°C). It grows well in the humid subtropics of the USSR and bears fruit on both acid and slightly alkaline soils. It is native to eastern Asia. There are six species in China, Japan, and on the Malay Archipelago and two species in the USSR (both cultivated)—the Nagami, or oval, kumquat (F. margarita) and the Marumi kumquat (F.japónica). The fruit is used for jams and candied peels. Kumquats are grown as ornamentals and are used in plant breeding for developing frost-resistant forms of citrus fruits. They are propagated by grafting on all species of citrus plants and on Poncirus trifoliata. They are cultivated in the same manner as other citrus crops.

REFERENCES

Ekimov, V. P. Subtropicheskoe plodovodstvo. Moscow, 1955.
Zhukovskii, P. M. Kul’turnye rasteniia i ikh sorodichi, 3rd ed. Leningrad, 1971.

A. D. ALEKSANDROV

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.