honey tangerine

English[edit]

honey tangerine (plural honey tangerines)

A murcott; a hybrid tangerine (tangor) of unknown parentage, first grown in Florida.
- 2003 May/June, Wolfgang Feger, Herbert Brandauer, Herta Ziegler, “Analytical investigation of Murcott (honey) tangerine peel oil”, in Journal of Essential Oil Research, volume 15, number 3, page 143:
  The name Honey tangerine is also common for Murcott tangerines, mainly in the United States; the designation Smith tangerine is also encountered.
A honey mandarin; a hybrid tangerine (tangor) bred in California from the "willowleaf" variety mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) and "king" tangor.
- 2001 March 1, Cynthia Hizer, “Winter choices still the best bet”, in The Atlanta Journal Constitution, page H.4:
  It has seeds, and it can't be easily peeled like early tangerines. So why bother with this lumpy thing when you can buy other tangerines that are less trouble? Because the honey tangerine is known as the tangerine to wait for. It's the sweetest of the season.

Walter Reuther and Herbert John Webber, editors (1967), The Citrus Industry, University of California, Division of Agricultural Sciences: “To avoid confusion with the hybrid Honey mandarin variety of California origin, the name Honey should not be used for this variety [murcott] even as an appendage.”