Ichang Papada Kaviar

[Till]

Here are pictures of a fruit of my Ichang Papeda. I apologize that the fotos is not as sharp as I wished. But you see that the structure of the juice sacs is exactly like that of the Fingerlime (C. australasiaca). It consists of small round perls. Interesting, isn't it? Is that normal for Ichang Papeda? I wonder why I did not realize it last year when I had my first fruits of the plant.






I am quite sure that I have pure C. ichangensis and not a hybrid. Leaves are typical, single flowers, not smelling, rich in nectar, seeds big, round and monoembryonic, sticky substance in the fruit, peel a bit bitter but otherwise mild, easy to peel, pulp juicy, sour and bitter.
Flowers were always cross pollinated with other citrus species. That's probably the reason why seed content of fruits was always small,a few with Rubino pollen, a few with frozen Morton pollen (the fruit in picture), but much more seeds with Chandler pollen. Still even when Chandler pollen was used there was some space left in the fruits for pulp.

My tree is a seedling tree from a hobby nursery.

[Florian]

My Citrus ichangensis IVIA does not have juice pearls/caviar like finger limes. However, the pulp is kind of mushy. One can scoop it out with a spoon very easily. My N1Tri is very similar in this respect.

The smaller fruits are often seedless while the bigger ones are riddled with seeds. I have counted up to 40 seeds in one fruit. The pulp/juice is just sour, I don't notice bitterness. However, my taste buds aren't great. Maybe there is a slight bitterness, I wouldn't know.

The peel, however, has a horrible aftertaste, much worse than anything I have ever tasted. The first few seconds, it is not there and then it hits the back of your palate. I am very bad at describing flavours. It kind of tastes like kerosene mixed with soap and lingers for quite a long time.

[Till]

Thank you for your reply, Florian. I have also asked Mikkel via email. The taste of his Ichang Papeda is also not bitter, the peel, however, tastes better than yours. There seem to be some variants of Ichang Papeda.

What I cannot exactly see on your fotos is what form the juice vesicles. The juice vesicles of my plant are more seperate from each other. But it seems to me that they have also the form of perls on your foto. Is that right?

[SoCal2warm]

The peel, however, has a horrible aftertaste, much worse than anything I have ever tasted.

Interesting. Because the peel that I tasted (from the Citrus ichangensis tree in the Hoyt Arboretum in Portland, Oregon) seemed very much leaning towards the edible side to me (perhaps just in my personal opinion).
I could easily eat and nibble on some of the peel, although would probably not want to eat more than a third of one fruit. I thought it would be great to flavor gin.
I personally found the peel to be more edible than lemon peel but not as good as citron.

It did get a little "skunky" and did not settle the best in my stomach if I ate the peel from more than about a third of one of the little fruits, but nevertheless I could enjoy eating and nibbling on a little bit of the fruit, and I think lemon lovers would think the same. Interesting flavor, to me almost like halfway between lemon and lime but with a little bit of the pungent character of Yuzu, and also with a little bit of a "woody" aroma. I would say as easy to eat as the peel from Satsuma mandarin, perhaps a little bit easier in some ways. I mean it was more tender, maybe even slightly more tender than the peel of a Yuzu freshly picked off the tree that is completely ripe, but it is very "lemony" and has a hint of bitterness (still a little less than the peel of Satsuma mandarin) and can get kind of "skunky" if you eat more than a small amount of it.

The inside of the Ichang papeda fruits I tasted did not look like finger lime. I wonder if perhaps what you have might actually be a hybrid.

The inside of the Ichang papeda fruits I tried looked like something between Kaffir lime and Yuzu, but slightly worse inside fruit quality than that, with a little less juice than even those have.

But keep in mind in this climate the fruits I tasted might not have been able to fully ripen all the way as much as they would have in a warmer climate further south. Portland does not really have a very long growing season, similar to Germany.

The Ichang papeda fruits from that tree looked different from both the pictures shown by Till, and those shown by Florian, but looked more similar to those shown by Florian.

Here is a picture of the fruits that I took.


Some will claim it looks like Yuzu but I can tell you it is not definitely not Yuzu, since I have picked off the fresh fruits from a Yuzu tree.

None the fruits from that tree that I picked seemed to have any viable or big seeds, but that may probably have been because there was no other nearby citrus variety to pollinate it.

[Florian]

Thank you for your reply, Florian. I have also asked Mikkel via email. The taste of his Ichang Papeda is also not bitter, the peel, however, tastes better than yours. There seem to be some variants of Ichang Papeda.

What I cannot exactly see on your fotos is what form the juice vesicles. The juice vesicles of my plant are more seperate from each other. But it seems to me that they have also the form of perls on your foto. Is that right?

It is kind of hard to tell the form of the juice vesicles because as soon as I scoop out the pulp it turns into a mush. They certainly aren't round, maybe oval/elongated.

Btw., when I tasted the rind at Eisenhut nursery it was sweet (!). Until this day I don't know why and my plant has never had sweet rind. It was at the end of december and the fruit was very soft, overripe. Maybe, I'll just have to wait longer before I taste it..

[Till]

SoCal2warm, my fruits look like yours, I would say. But form of juice vesicles is quite different.

[Ilya11]

Till,
Sac vesicles of my  C.ichangensis IVIA358 fruit are elongated and are softer compare to those of fingerlime.
 

[Till]

Thank you for your pictures, Ilya. Yes your juice vesicles are different, although not very long. My Ichang Papeda was not in the best condition this year, probably a bit too dry for some time. That may have played a role. But there seem to be a tendency even in your Ichang Papeda to produce short juice vesicles, not round but somewhat oval. Right?

[Ilya11]

Yes, but I guess the shape could be affected by juice content. Fingerlime vesicles are also much harder.