The World of Apples

The apples that aren't

Citron

Citrus medica, Rutaceae, the citrus family

The citron is a thorny shrub or small tree with large, lemon-like fruits whose thick, warty rind is candied for confectionery and fruitcake3. Kew gives its native range as the western central Himalaya to Myanmar2.

It reached the Greeks as an apple. Theophrastus described “that which is called the ‘Median’ or ‘Persian apple’” of Media and Persia: a thorny tree whose fruit “is not eaten, but it is very fragrant”, and which, laid among clothes, kept the moth from them4. Dioscorides called it mēlon Mēdikon, and the Greek lexicon glosses that as the citron, Citrus medica5.

The Romans’ word was mālum citreum, from citrus, the citron tree, which gave the Old French and English citron3. Their mālum stretched that far: Lewis and Short define it as any tree-fruit fleshy outside with a kernel within, and so also quinces, pomegranates, peaches, oranges and lemons6. Among those apples are the quince, the pomegranate and the peach6.

Sources

  1. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Citrus medica, Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Supports: the accepted name and family.
  2. Plants of the World Online: Citrus medica, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: the accepted name and the native range, "WC. Himalaya to Myanmar".
  3. citron, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, fifth edition, HarperCollins, 2022. Supports: a thorny shrub or small tree with large lemon-like fruits with a thick warty rind, candied for confectionery and fruitcake; the derivation from Latin mālum citreum, from citrus, the citron tree.
  4. Enquiry into Plants, book 4, chapter 4, Theophrastus, translated by Arthur Hort (1916), ToposText. Supports: the "Median" or "Persian apple" of Media and Persia: thorny, its fruit not eaten but fragrant, and kept among clothes against moths.
  5. μῆλον (B), in Liddell, Scott and Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon, Logeion, University of Chicago. Supports: Dioscorides' mēlon Mēdikon as the citron, Citrus medica.
  6. mālum, in Lewis and Short, A Latin Dictionary, Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, via Logeion, University of Chicago. Supports: mālum as any tree-fruit fleshy outside with a kernel within, applied also to quinces, pomegranates, peaches, oranges and lemons.