fruit Bigarade ou Chinois

Sour orange / citrus aurantium / is a tree of the Rutaceae family / / citrus /. Sour orange (Citrus aurantium) is a tree of the family Rutaceae (citrus), 5 to 10 meters, oval leaves, glossy and with a persistent thorn in the axils of lower leaves. Fruit, bitter orange, also known as "bitter orange" is smaller than the sweet orange and rough skin tinged with green or yellow. Its flesh is acidic, not very juicy, very bitter and contains many seeds. The flowers are white or pink, larger than those of the sweet orange and very fragrant. They bloom in early spring. The sour orange is native to southeastern Asia. The Arabs have introduced in the ninth or tenth century Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, North Africa and Sicily, Sardinia and Spain. It was the Crusaders who spread throughout Europe, where for nearly 500 years, it will be the only type of orange that we cultivate. The Moors cultivated extensively near Seville in Spain, which earned its nickname to the fruit of the Seville orange. Introduce the Columbus in the Caribbean on his second voyage, and it will reach the shores of the continental U.S. around 1518. In the U.S., where he found a particularly fertile ground, it will grow wild in large gardens. Without the commercial importance of the orange, sour orange is cultivated today in many parts of the world. The term "bitter orange" just bigarrer, a Provencal word appeared in the fifteenth century and whose origin seems to be Germanic. The word first appeared in 1600, replacing the older expression of "orenger bigarrat".