A team of genealogists and horticulturists from China, the United States and Australia have found evidence of the origins of citrus plants found in what is now southern China. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nature Genetics.
Although citrus fruits are commonly found in warm and tropical parts of the world, it was unclear where they first appeared until now. It was previously assumed that the ancestors of lemon and tangerine could have arisen in Australia, in the foothills of the Himalayas or in China.
Scientists conducted a genetic study on 314 citrus or related plants. They also organized excursions into the possible origins of citrus species. They found that the oldest of these is poncirus, or three-leaf lemon, whose age is about 8 million years.
The south of China was considered the homeland of poncirus, suggesting that the entire diversity of modern citrus fruits originated in this region.
Researchers believe that the distant ancestors of citrus fruits may have entered the territory of modern India from China after the collision of the Asian tectonic plate with the Indian tectonic plate about 25 million years ago. From here the plants spread to the lands surrounding the Mediterranean.
Before geneticists determined The historical homeland of domestic cats.