Valentine Pummelo Hybrid

Valentine is UCR selection 6C-28-18, from Siamese Sweet pummelo × (Ruby blood orange × Dancy mandarin). Robert Soost and James Cameron selected pigmented hybrids in the 1970s from crosses originally made in the 1950s. A clean budwood source was established at Lindcove in 1997 as VI 597; CRC 4182 received CCPP budwood in 2006. Nursery budwood release was reported in 2009.^⁠[1]⁠[8]

UCR describes round to pear-shaped fruit, often with a stem-end neck, yellow rind and red anthocyanin pigmentation. Mature fruit peel moderately easily and are seeded; the collection describes seed averages in the twenties. These descriptions concern collection fruit, while rind, shape, seeds and color can vary among growers’ fruit.^⁠[1]

Ottillia “Toots” Bier named Valentine for its mid-February ripening and the heart-like shape of a lengthwise-cut fruit turned upside down. Riverside’s reported season is January–March. In UCR’s Riverside and Lindcove account, sugar-to-acid maturity could precede full red color; fuller February pigmentation was associated with an average solids-to-acid ratio near 16:1, rather than a fixed value for every fruit.^⁠[1]

Individual growers report easy peeling, juicy flesh and orange, mandarin, grapefruit or floral flavor notes. Their accounts differ in maturity and growing conditions: one greenhouse grower’s off-season fruit remained pale and dry, while other growers describe red winter fruit. These observations and personal taste ratings describe the reported fruit or trees, rather than one predictable cultivar-wide result.^{⁠[7]⁠[13]⁠[17]⁠[20]}