Tahitian Pummelo

Tahitian is a juicy pummelo with yellow to greenish-yellow rind and greenish-amber flesh. Its rind is relatively thin for a pummelo, though UCR’s 1988 observation found it thicker than the historical description suggested. IDtools describes fruit as broad as long or slightly longer than broad.^⁠[1]⁠[4]

The cultivar’s origin is obscure. A historical account reproduced by UCR and IDtools repeats the traditional belief that it arose in Tahiti from seed from Borneo and was later taken to Hawaii; this is not established provenance. IDtools lists Moanalua and Monalua as cited synonyms. UCR separately notes that Sarawak pummelo is sometimes called Tahitian, but this does not establish that all trees under those names are the same accession or clone.^⁠[1]⁠[4]

UCR accession CRC 3806 (PI 539392, VI 342) was received as budwood from Hawaii in 1971. Its parents are unknown. The accession grows on Carrizo and C-35 rootstocks, and its Riverside ripening season is not established.^⁠[1]

Tree and fruit reports vary. UCR’s EMN observation describes small trees and seeded fruit with slight tartness, while its separate OJB note describes a large, vigorous tree and early-to-midseason fruit. Osborne reports many seeds and melon-like flavor from his own tree; one Reddit poster describes a pictured fruit as seedless. A Weird Explorer tasting rates the Murray Family Farms sample 7/10 for sweetness and 5/10 for tartness; an auto-dubbed video reports one shown fruit at 1.6 kg. These are distinct, attributed observations, not fixed cultivar-wide measurements.^{⁠[1]⁠[3]⁠[5]⁠[6]⁠[7]}