Keraji Mandarin

UCR’s CRC 3144 account preserves Tanaka’s (1961) and Bitters’s (1963) descriptions, including juicy fruit and an open, shrubby, nearly spineless tree. Other descriptions call the fruit broader than long or oblate, with pale yellow to orange rind. Grower samples vary in size and seediness; a January account describes late-season fruit as easier to peel and more prone to drying. Growers describe lemonade-tangerine flavor, and one reports eating the peel and making marmalade.^{⁠[1]⁠[13]⁠[10]⁠[17]⁠[16]⁠[18]⁠[14]⁠[21]}

UCR describes an open, shrubby form, while Citrus ID describes a compact or dense crown; growers also report vigorous growth and heavy crops. Fruit may remain into winter at some sites if freezes are avoided. Cold accounts differ by specimen and conditions: a protected Lake Constance tree lost only a few leaves after two −11 °C nights, while an unprotected B. Voss 6-7-2 graft on Poncirus in the Paris region was reported undamaged at −9 °C. A Georgia grower describes a hard 2022 freeze hit and rebound; accounts differ in severity and do not establish a universal minimum.^{⁠[1]⁠[13]⁠[10]⁠[12]⁠[15]⁠[16]⁠[19]⁠[20]}

Todolí reports that Keraji was discovered in Keraji village on Kikai Island in the late eighteenth century; the discoverer is not identified. UCR separately records receiving Keraji seed from H. Yoshimura at the University of Osaka in 1956 and lists parents as unknown. The later accession is not the cultivar’s documented creation or introduction.^{⁠[10]⁠[1]}

A marker study by Shimizu et al. infers Kabuchi as seed parent and Kunenbo-A as pollen parent for the specific accession A052. This accession-level result does not establish every Keraji clone’s pedigree or validate the catalog’s existing generic parentage and ancestry proportions; those records remain unverified.^⁠[7]