Ellendale

Description

Ellendale is an old-fashioned tangor — a natural mandarin x orange hybrid seedling found at Burrum, Queensland around 1878 — sold as a mandarin in New Zealand. Clonal selections include Koster, Herps and Robinson. Fruit are large with relatively smooth, deep orange skin that peels about as easily as an Ugli, and the segments separate readily. Flavour is rich and juicy with high sugar balanced by high acid, so harvest date and storage strongly affect eating quality (acids mellow in storage and fruit can arrive more palatable than at picking). It is a mid-season tangor (Mid on the NZ mandarin scale, ahead of Murcott and Hansen), though the season is reasonably long and fruit left on the tree too long goes puffy. Seed numbers vary widely and rise with cross-pollination. Trees are productive but can be strongly alternate-bearing with weak crotches prone to limb splitting. Keeping is excellent — fruit stores upwards of three months at 3-4C — so it suits fresh dessert use with surplus stored. Give it a warm site, careful late-season irrigation to avoid sharp acidity, and thin heavy crops.