US-1279 Citrandarin

US-1279 Citrandarin arose from Kim D. Bowman’s 1995 Changsha mandarin × Gotha Road #6 trifoliate orange cross at Florida’s A.H. Whitmore Foundation Farm. Tested as BS95-V3-11, it was released by USDA in September 2014 as a Florida citrus rootstock.^⁠[1]⁠[7]

One Pennsylvania-supplied, reportedly cross-pollinated fruit tasting described small fruit with orange, calamondin, mango, and slight herbal notes; mandarin, orange, floral, and soap aroma; very high sourness, low sweetness, and low bitterness. The reviewer suggested juice, marmalade, and candied peel. The matching card and video measurements conflict, so 33.2 g and 12.5 °Brix are retained as visually checked video readings while card values remain noted rather than averaged.^{⁠[9]⁠[11]}

Local grower accounts describe a mixture of monofoliate and trifoliolate leaves, a fuller looser form, and provisional central-North-Carolina winter performance. These are establishment- and site-limited observations without a verified minimum-temperature threshold.^{⁠[8]⁠[10]}

In Florida flatwoods trials, Hamlin sweet-orange scions on US-1279 showed favorable productivity and fruit-quality performance after HLB infection. This is tolerance in a grafted-tree/site context, not evidence of infection prevention; ridge-site benefit was not established. Early release guidance anticipated predominantly nucellar seed without testing it; a 2020 study subsequently found no true-to-type plants among 24 SSR-tested US-1279 seedlings from a 2019 open-pollinated seed collection. The study recommended cuttings or micropropagation for commercial propagation.^{⁠[1]⁠[7]⁠[12]}