Family: Rutaceae
Common name: Pomelo, Pummelo, Pomello, Pommelo, Papanus, Shaddock, Pumelo, Pamplemousse, Babloos naranga, Bambloose naranga, Kambili naranga
Pomelo is a tall and majestic citrus tree celebrated by gardeners for their large, flavorful fruits, and their ornamental value.
Tree characteristics
The tree can reach a height of 10 to 15 meters with a rounded crown. Leaves are winged near the stem, elliptical to ovate, dull glossy green, and about 15-25 cm in length. Like all citrus plants, the leaves exude a light-citrus fragrance when crushed.
The flowers of the Pomelo are small, white, and fragrant, with five distinct petals, and numerous stamens arranged in the center. They usually grow in bunches at the tips of the branches and have a sweet, citrus scent that can attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and small insects.
While the individual flowers are small and inconspicuous, they can collectively beautify your garden, filling it with a heady fragrance.
Pomelo is the largest citrus fruit, with some varieties reaching diameters of 30 cm or more. The fruit has a thick, spongy rind that can changes color from green to yellow when ripe. Some cultivars also have pale pink outer skin.
The flesh inside is pale yellow to pink, divided into 12-18 segments with small juice-filled pieces that burst in your mouth when bitten, just like in oranges. The taste is less tart and acidic than other citrus fruits like lemon, milder but with a slight bitterness. The fruit segments contain 1-2 large seeds.
The pulp can eaten raw or used to make salads, juices, and desserts. The thick skin can be candied to make a delicious sweet. Pomelo is used as a hybrid in creating various fruits like the sweet orange, bitter orange, and grapefruit.
Gardening tips
Pomelo trees can be grown easily in home gardens with very little maintenance, yielding up to 50 cannonball-like fruits in season. They need reasonable sunlight and well-drained soil. Once they are established in the soil in the first 1-2 years, they do not need regular watering or fertilization. Too much water can affect the taste of the fruit.
In traditional herbal medicine, various parts of the Pomelo are used in treatment of asthma, cough, leprosy, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, eye infections, stomach ailments and so on.
The leaves have antifungal and anti-dermatophytic properties. The fruit and juice of the Pomelo are consumed orally to aid digestion, relieve indigestion, and promote regularity.
Pomelo is believed to be one of the ancestors of the modern grapefruit which is a hybrid of Pomelo and Sweet Orange. It is considered a symbol of prosperity and good fortune in many Asian cultures and is often given as a gift during celebrations. Pomelos are traditionally used in festive dishes and offerings during cultural and religious celebrations.
Propagation
Propagation is through seeds, grafting, air layering. Grafting is done by joining selected scions or pieces of stem onto a healthy rootstock trees. Choose healthy, disease-free pieces of stem from the desired tree and prepare them by making diagonal cuts at the base. Make corresponding cuts on the parent tree and join the two pieces together, securing them with tape.
Air layering is where a small cut is made in an existing tree on a healthy stem. You can even remove a layer of the bark around the stem. This area is then covered in moss and secured. Once roots develop in this area, it can then we separated from the parent tree and replanted.
Photographed at: Manjapra, Kerala and GKVK College of Agriculture, Bangalore
