The mangshanyegan (; ''Citrus mangshanensis'') is a wild citrus fruit species. The mangshanyegan is native to mountain forests in Mangshan,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

province,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, where it was first reported in the 1980s. It is genetically distinct from the

mandarin orange The mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata''), also known as the mandarin or mandarine, is a small citrus tree fruit. Treated as a distinct species of orange, it is usually eaten plain or in fruit salads. Tangerines are a group of orange-coloured ...

, with which it has morphological similarities, and the term 'Mangshan wild mandarins' as well as the species name ''C. mangshanensis'' have been used both for the mangshanyegan and for wild true mandarins of the same region. Genomic sequencing shows the mangshanyegan to be one of a small number of pure (non-hybrid) citrus species, having diverged from other members of the genus at the initial branching of ''Citrus'' radiation in the Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

. It is genetically similar to another wild citrus of the region, the ''yuanju''.

References

Citrus {{Rutaceae-stub