Ortanique LS Mandarin Budwood

The fruit ripens in January through March in Florida. Fruit are very mandarin-like in appearance, identical to standard 'Ortanique' which resembles 'Temple'. Fruit of US ORTANIQUE-LS have 4-7 seeds (mean of 5) in mixed plantings (compared to a mean of 15 from adjoining standard 'Ortanique'), a pebbled orange peel of medium thickness and dark orange flesh. The flavor is very rich, but the peel is somewhat adherent with pieces removed in chunks. Standard 'Ortanique' is self-incompatible and poorly parthenocarpic so use of solid plantings is not likely to provide both lower seed count and acceptable yields.

Trees are of medium vigor and have a compact canopy. Growers who have trialed US ORTANIQUE-LS caution that rootstocks promoting high brix, such as Cleo and US-942 confer excellent quality while trees on Swingle produce lower quality fruit. There are anecdotal reports that US ORTANIQUE-LS is somewhat tolerant of huanglongbing responding favorably to enhanced nutritional therapy. At the few locations where it has been grown, trees and fruit are quite similar to standard 'Ortanique' with somewhat smaller fruit and reduced seed count.

US ORTANIQUE-LS is of excellent flavor and is among the latest maturing of mandarin types which make it a potentially desirable addition to the cultivar mix for local markets, gift-fruit- shippers, home orchardists, and other niche uses. It is anticipated that thousands of trees of US ORTANIQUE-LS will be propagated, planted and grown for high quality, unique specialty citrus production.