The Murcott (marketed as Honey Tangerine) is a

tangor The tangor (''C. reticulata'' × ''C. sinensis'') is a citrus fruit hybrid of the mandarin orange (''Citrus reticulata'') and the sweet orange (''Citrus sinensis''). The name "tangor" is a formation from the "tang" of tangerine and the "or" of " ...

, or

mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

– sweet orange hybrid. The Murcott arose out of citrus pioneer

Walter Tennyson Swingle Walter Tennyson Swingle (January 8, 1871 – January 19, 1952) was an American agricultural Botany, botanist who contributed greatly to the classification and citrus taxonomy, taxonomy of citrus. Biography Swingle was born in South Canaan, Cana ...

's attempts to produce novel citrus hybrids. Its seed parent has been identified as the King tangelo; the pollen parent remains to be identified. About 1913, he gave a hybrid tree he had produced at a

US Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

planting to R. D. Hoyt at Safety Harbor, Florida. Hoyt in turn gave budwood to his nephew, Charles Murcott Smith, for whom the variety was named. Smith was growing the resulting trees in 1922 at his nursery in Bayview, Pinellas County, Florida, now a neighborhood in Clearwater. The trees grow upright, but often have branches bent or broken by heavy fruiting at the ends. It is widely grown in

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 ...

, where it matures from January to March. Citrus scab and alternaria fungus disease attack Murcotts. The Murcott is one parent of the Clementine-like hybrid variously called the Afourer, Nadorcott or W. Murcott cultivar, the other parent being unknown.

References

Oranges (fruit) Citrus hybrids {{Rutaceae-stub