Stats

Lifespan: 25-50 yrs
Size: Medium
Diet: Photosynthetic
Biome: Mediterranean scrub
Range: East Asia
Movement: Sessile
Breeding: Seeds
Defense: Spines
Status: Rare

About

A small, easy-peel citrus prized for its seedless, deep-orange segments, believed to be a natural hybrid between a mandarin and a sweet orange first identified in Algeria in the early 1900s. Its flowers can set fruit without pollination, but if bees carry in pollen from a nearby citrus tree, the same clementine tree will suddenly bear seeded fruit.

Life cycle

1.
seed
A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
2.
sprout
A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
3.
sapling
A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
4.
mature
Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Citrus