Whatever happened to tangerines?

CrowdScience

BBC

Science, Technology

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s citrus season in the northern hemisphere, and fruit trees are bursting with oranges and lemons. But CrowdScience listener Jonathan wants to know what happened to the tangerines he ate as a child in the 1960s? He remembers a fruit that was juicy, sweet and full of pips, found each Christmas at the bottom of his stocking. Tangerines today, he thinks, just don't compare.

Crowdscience tries to track down this elusive fruit. Presenter Anand Jagatia traces the tangerine's origins back to Ancient China, as botanist David Mabberley explains that the name ‘tangerine’ comes from a fruit that made its way from Asia, to Africa and the Moroccan port of Tangier, before arriving in the US in the early 1800s. Professor Tracy Kahn from UC Riverside tells us about the hybridisation process that goes into breeding modern tangerines, but says that while the season for these fruits has been dramatically extended, there’s a cost in terms of diversity and flavour.

Who better to help us track down this missing mandarin than a fruit detective? Well, that’s one of pomologist David Karp’s other job titles, and he reveals exactly which cultivar we might be looking for: the Dancy. So where can we find one? Over on Friend’s Ranches in Ojai, California, Emily Ayala shows us two trees planted by her late grandfather, and explains that nothing grown since really matches its unique flavour.

So what will listener Jonathan think when we send him a box?

Presenter: Anand Jagatia Producer: Marijke Peters Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Jackie Margerum

(Image: Citrus oranges grow on tree, Hong Kong Credit: CHUNYIP WONG via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, so I'd like to tell you where you'll find more just like it.
0:05.5	I'm Izzy Lee Poulton, an assistant commissioner for BBC Sounds, which means I'm involved in the whole podcast making process.
0:12.0	Whether that's developing fresh formats or facilitating eye-catching artwork, I helped project manage all the details that make our podcast stand out.
0:19.0	At the BBC, we've got access to storytellers and experts across a huge range of subjects.
0:24.6	It could be psychologists, comedians, celebrities or journalists.
0:28.6	No podcasts or day looks the same here.
0:31.6	So no matter what you like, check out BBC Sounds.
0:33.6	There's probably another podcast on there that you're absolutely love.
0:44.3	There are things that come and go in your life, and sometimes they pop into your head, like,
0:46.8	wait a second, whatever happened to that.
0:58.2	Tangerines were a very important part of our upbringing because they were only available during basically December. And so the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Year's was marked by
1:03.3	tangerines. They were delicious. And they disappeared.
1:10.2	This is Crowd Science from the BBC World Service,
1:13.4	the show that answers your science questions.
1:16.0	I'm Ann Ann Jagatia,
1:17.6	and for this episode, we've got a really juicy mystery on our hands.
1:22.0	My name is Jonathan Siegel.
1:23.4	A number of years ago, I started looking around to see what happened to them and if they were really, truly extinct.
1:33.3	Of course, a lot of people say, yeah, we have tangerines, you know, you'd get some and they go, no, they're not tangerines.
1:39.4	So I'm listening to the BBC and I thought, well, let's see what crowd science has to do.
1:43.8	Because maybe in South Africa or somewhere else in the world, there are still tangerines.
1:48.9	I was a bit confused when I first heard this question.
	...

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