Zigui is the hometown of navel oranges in China. Zigui navel orange has excellent quality and unique flavor. Navel orange has the characteristics of big seedless fruit, thin skin, fresh color, crispy meat and rich juice, and fragrant and sweet taste. Peach orange has the characteristics of smooth fruit surface, orange peel, thin and easy peeling, sweet and thick taste, brittle residue and rich aroma.
Zigui has a long history of planting oranges. As early as 2, years ago, Qu Yuan, a great patriotic poet, wrote a famous poem Ode to Oranges in his hometown.
Records of the Historian and Biography of Huo Zhi also recorded "Thousands of oranges in Jiangling, Shuhan", and Du Fu, a famous poet in the Tang Dynasty, also left a masterpiece of "clearing the banks of the river in spring and making a thousand oranges in two hectares", which made Yichang famous for oranges.
The fine varieties with large planting area in Zigui are: Changhong, Newhall, Blood Orange, Lunwan Navel Orange, Summer Orange, Quxiang Autumn Orange and Ponkan. Zigui is the only area in China that produces fresh oranges all year round.
① changhong navel orange is an excellent strain selected from the varieties of Newhall navel orange introduced from Zigui county, and it is named because its skin is brightly colored, almost fiery red, and its fruit shape is oblong.
② Newhall navel orange is beautiful in shape, high in quality and high in yield. The fruit is oval, smooth, orange-red and beautiful in appearance. The meat is crisp and tender, and the flavor is sweet. Single fruit weighs 18g-25g, which is the largest navel orange variety in China.
③ Blood orange, also known as red navel orange, has a spherical fruit with many closed umbilicus, with an average fruit weight of about 2 grams, and the pulp is tomato red. Uniform color, special fragrance, excellent quality and good commodity. The fruit ripens in January and February. After keeping the trees fresh, the fruit can be delayed until March.
④ Lunwan Navel Orange is strong, with drooping branches, smooth orange peel, extremely small navel, fine oil bubbles, tender pulp, sweet fruit, high sugar content, low acid content and excellent taste. The single fruit weighs 25g and ripens in March-April of the following year. It is a late-maturing variety developed vigorously in Zigui.
⑤. Zigui Summer Orange has excellent quality, round or oval fruit, weighing 15-19g, orange-yellow or orange-red skin, smooth surface, crisp meat residue, moderate sweetness and sweetness, and rich aroma, which is the best fruit to regulate the fruit market. The fruit ripens in May.
⑥. September red navel orange, also known as "Quxiang Autumn Orange", ripens from the end of September to the beginning of October every year. September red navel orange is the earliest orange listed in China.