Limau gedang (Citrus × paradisi) adalah sebuah pohon sitrussubtropis yang dikenal karena buahnya yang memiliki rasa asam dan semi-manis. Limau gedang adalah sebuah hibrida yang bermula di Barbados ketika sebuah persilangan yang tak disengaja terjadi antara dua spesies yang diperkenalkan, jeruk manis (C. sinesis) dan pomelo atau shaddock (C. maxima), keduanya diperkenalkan dari Asia pada abad ketujuh belas.[1] Ketika ditemukan, buah tersebut dianggap sebagai "buah terlarang";[2] dan juga secara salah paham dikira pomelo.[3]
Produksi
Tingkat penanaman limau gedang dan pomelo pada 2005
Tanpa simbol = angka resmi, P = angka resmi, F = perkiraan FAO, * = Tak resmi/Semi-resmi/data cermin, C = angka hitungan A = Agregat (dapat meliputi resmi, semi-resmi atau perkiraan);
^Carrington, Sean; Fraser, HenryC (2003). "Grapefruit". A~Z of Barbados Heritage. Macmillan Caribbean. hlm. 90–91. ISBN0-333-92068-6. One of many citrus species grown in Barbados. This fruit is believed to have originated in Barbados as a natural cross between sweet orange (C. sinesis) and Shaddock (C. grandis), both of which were introduced from Asia in the seventeenth century. The grapefruit first appeared as an illustration entitled 'The Forbidden Fruit Tree' in the Rev. Griffith Hughes' The Natural History of Barbados (1750). This accords with the scientific name which literally is 'citrus of paradise'. The fruit was obviously fairly common around that time since George Washington in his Barbados Journal (1750-1751) mentions 'the Forbidden Fruit' as one of the local fruit available at a dinner party he attended. The plant was later described in the 1837 Flora of Jamaica as the Barbados Grapefruit. The historical arguments and experimental work on leaf enzymes and oils from possible parents all support a Barbadian origin for the fruit.
