I have a little grapefruit tree in my garden that I’m very fond of, which makes lovely fruit that I very much enjoy eating in defiance of the tiny writing on the label of my statins.
I ate my first fruit of the season from it yesterday, only to discover to my dismay that it was a mandarin. I was absolutely gobsmacked, as you can imagine. Is this even biologically feasible? It was quite yummy, easy to peel, and had no seeds.
I used to laugh at my husband, who thinks that any small green citrus fruit is ergo a lime (having said that, they all taste surprisingly good in a G and T, so does it really matter?) but now my whole botanical understanding is in tatters. Is it actually possible that the grapefruit’s flowers were pollinated from the mandarin flowers on the shrub beside it? Is it an errant branch from whatever rootstock it was grafted onto? Did some dastardly grapefruit-ophile steal my tree and replace it with a look alike while I was away on my holiday? (Seems unlikely).
Of most concern to me is the possibility that I have somehow misremembered the tree – confusing it with its neighbour – or that I’ve just fabricated the entire grapefruit story in my head.
None of these options is anything less than disquieting I’m afraid. I will keep you updated as more facts come to hand.