2023-05-07 00:07:38
Orange is the name of the fruit of the orange tree but orange is also a color. Why are oranges that grow in temperate climates orange, and why are they green in the tropics? (Replay)
On the European or South African markets in winter, it is the fruit that is distinguished first by its color. But why is orange orange? The fruit of the orange tree experiences the same phenomenon as the leaves of the trees in the fall. With the onset of cold weather, there is no more photosynthesis, and therefore no more chlorophyll. What was green becomes yellow or orange.
« The green color is given by a pigment called chlorophyll, recalls François Luro, geneticist and citrus specialist at INRAE, the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment, in San Giuliano in Corsica. The varieties of oranges that are produced in the Mediterranean basin, for example, are colored orange, while the varieties that come from tropical countries remain green. » Where it never gets cold.
industrial orange
A green orange can therefore be as tasty and juicy as an orange orange. But to please consumers in temperate climates, the industry is springing into action. Orange O despair, have I lived so long only for this infamy? Imperfectly orange oranges are gassed. ” The fruit is harvested and stored in chambers in which we will diffuse a gas called ethylene and which will degrade the chlorophyll, explains François Luro. Other fruits produce ethylene. These fruits, like the apple, continue to ripen even after harvest and their maturity depends on the production of ethylene. » For these climacteric fruits, such as the apple or the banana, the production of ethylene generates a chemical reaction which gives sugar. The orange stops ripening as soon as you pick it. And the first time was several millennia ago.
An accident of nature
« A grapefruit tree and a mandarin tree fertilized each other in the wild, says François Luro. They have several individuals, and among these millions of individuals, there was one who was the orange tree. It was Man, then, who made a choice when he came across it by chance in his area of origin in the wild state and who then multiplied it. The orange trees that we will find in the United States, in Brazil, in South Africa or in the Mediterranean basin are of the same lineage as this unique tree which appeared 4,000 or 5,000 years ago in the south of the current China. » The orange is an accident of nature, a miracle of pollination.
“Does orange owe its name to orange, or is it the other way around? »
In other words, is it the color that gave the fruit its name? No, it’s the other way around. The root of the word orange comes directly from the Arab presence in southern Europe, from an Arabic word derived from a Persian word, itself inspired by Sanskrit and which meant perfume. It wasn’t until long after that we switched to orange, the color. Because there is nothing more orange than an orange, except in a poem by Paul Éluard: ” The earth is blue like an orange »…
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