Pummelo × Sweet Orange
Marsh Grapefruit
Other names: Marsh Seedless, White Marsh, Whitney Marsh
Estimated Genetic Ancestry
- 100% Grapefruit
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World of CitrusWorld of CitrusPummelo × Sweet Orange
Other names: Marsh Seedless, White Marsh, Whitney Marsh
Marsh grapefruit is reported as a chance seedling near Lakeland, Florida, planted around 1860. Its commercial value was recognized in 1886; E. H. Tison arranged propagation and introduction soon after, and C. M. Marsh gave it its present name a few years later. The parentage and exact dates of discovery, introduction and naming are not established.[1]
Marsh is also called White Marsh or Marsh Seedless. It is the white or pale-yellow grapefruit distinguished from Pink Marsh/Thompson, a separate limb sport of Marsh. UCR’s account says Redblush/Ruby (Red Marsh) later arose as a bud mutation of Thompson.[1][3]
A reproduced general description calls Marsh medium, oblate to spherical, pale to light yellow, with a medium-thin tough smooth rind and tender, very juicy buff flesh; it describes few or no seeds, high heat requirements, a vigorous spreading productive tree, and late fruit that holds well on the tree.[1]
Reported samples vary: Fruit Maven describes a very juicy California market fruit with a few small seeds, while one California Central Valley video reports 9.0 °Brix for a Marsh-labeled grapefruit. Neither account establishes a cultivar-wide average; the video’s harvest date and rootstock are unknown.[2][5]
The 2007 karyotype study used CMA/DAPI staining and rDNA-FISH. Its abstract reports Marsh Grapefruit in a marker group with three C-type and five D-type CMA-positive marker chromosomes and five 45S rDNA sites; it also reports two 5S rDNA-bearing chromosomes in each accession examined. These marker patterns are not a ploidy determination, full chromosome count, shared cultivar identity or proof of parentage.[10]