Food - Drink
Grapefruits Are Actually A Hybrid Of These 2 Fruits
By MEGGAN ROBINSON
The huge variety of citrus fruits that we cultivate today did not appear out of thin air. As far as 7 million years ago, southeast Asia gave birth to the three original citrus fruits — citron, pomelo, and mandarin — and since then, the citrus family's extreme proclivity to cross-breed has resulted in dozens of descendants, including the grapefruit.
Grapefruit, which comes in many colors and varieties in of itself, is actually a hybrid of the pomelo and the sweet orange, the latter being a hybrid of the pomelo and the mandarin. According to the American Society for Horticultural Science, grapefruits are believed to have originated in Barbados, and are only about 300 years old.
Atlas Obscura explains that the name “grapefruit” did not become common until the 1830’s. Since grapefruit does not taste like grapes, and grapes were not found on Barbados at the time, the citrus fruit was likely named after sea grapes, a member of the buckwheat family whose sour and bitter taste resembles that of grapefruit.