World of Citrus is a community-driven catalog dedicated to documenting the vast diversity of citrus. We cover established varieties, hybrids, selections, traits, and observations to serve growers, breeders, researchers, and enthusiasts. Our mission is to build a centralized, evidence-based resource that makes citrus knowledge accessible and verifiable.

Why It Exists

Citrus information has long been fragmented across forum threads, obscure PDFs, and outdated university pages. It is often contradictory, poorly documented, or hard to verify across different climates. Many important cultivars and unique seedlings exist only in private collections, undocumented and at risk of being lost.

World of Citrus fills this gap by providing a centralized catalog with an evidence-based structure. We rely on community verification rather than a single source of authority, ensuring that data reflects real-world observations from diverse growers.

How the Platform Works

We organize information around Varieties & Classifications, covering everything from named cultivars to unique hybrids and selections. Entries are Evidence-Based, supported by photos, trait data, provenance, and parentage records.

The platform thrives on Community Participation. Users contribute by adding comments, observations, and media. Curation is handled through a combination of editorial review and community signals, ensuring high-quality data.

Variety Status & Trust Model

Not all varieties are equal, and our status system reflects the level of evidence available, not popularity.

• Community: Varieties submitted by members that are under community review or lack sufficient verification for official status.
• Official: Varieties that have been verified with substantial evidence and meet our strict documentation criteria, or are long standing recognized cultivars.
• Archived: Entries that have been deprecated, merged, or found to be invalid.

Community & Roles

We operate on an open contribution model with progressive trust levels.

• Members: The heart of the platform. You discover, document, and share your citrus findings.
• Moderators: Ensure the community remains safe, helpful, and on-topic.
• Editors: Curate data, verify variety statuses, and maintain the integrity of the catalog.

Editors curate the data, but the community discovers and documents it. This ensures that knowledge isn't gatekept but is rigorously checked.

Principles & Values

• Accuracy over hype: We value verified data over marketing claims.
• Evidence over anecdotes: We look for proof and consistent observations.
• Transparency over authority: We show our sources and reasoning.
• Preservation: We aim to document rare and emerging genetics before they are lost.

Long-Term Vision

Our goal is to preserve citrus genetic knowledge and support breeding and cold-hardy research. We want to make obscure or regional citrus discoverable and build a living reference that evolves with our understanding, rather than a static database.