Citra is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Marion County,
Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, United States. The community is part of the
Ocala
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making it the 43rd-most popul ...
Metropolitan Statistical Area. Citra is known as the home of the pineapple orange, (originally called the Hickory orange) a name coined in 1883 for an
orange (fruit)
The orange, also called sweet orange to distinguish it from the bitter orange (''Citrus × aurantium''), is the fruit of a tree in the family (biology), family Rutaceae. Botanically, this is the hybrid Citrus × sinensis, ''Citrus'' × ''sinen ...
with an
aroma
An odor (American English) or odour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is a smell or a scent caused by one or more volatilized chemical compounds generally found in low concentrations that humans and many animals can perceive v ...
reminiscent of the
pineapple
The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae.
The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...
.
History
Citra was founded in 1881 in a citrus-growing district. A post office has been in operation at Citra since 1881.
Citra has two buildings on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
: The
Citra Methodist Episcopal Church and the
Armstrong House. It is home to a
University of Florida
The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences
An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body.
In some countries, institutes ca ...
plant research facility, being expanded with a donation from Canadian billionaire
Frank Stronach.
It is in the part of Florida immortalized in the writings of
who lived nearby at
Cross Creek.
Geography
Citra is located at .
Notable person
Popular tenor
James Melton grew up in Citra.
See also
References
External links
Marion County City and Towns
Unincorporated communities in Marion County, Florida
Unincorporated communities in Florida
Former municipalities in Florida
{{MarionCountyFL-geo-stub