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Description and variation Citron varieties Acidic -pulp varieties: Diamante citron Greek citron Balady citron Florentine citron Non- acidic varieties: Moroccan citron Corsican citron Pulpless varieties: Buddha's hand Yemenite citron Related Articles: Citrus • Succade • Hybrid • Grafting • Chimera • Etrog • Sukkoth • Four Species This box: view • talk • edit The citron fruit is usually ovate or oblong, narrowing towards the stylar end. However, the citron's fruit shape is highly variable, due to the large quantity of albedo , which forms independently according to the fruits' position on the tree, twig orientation, and many other factors. This could also be the reason for its being protuberant, forming a "v" shape after the end of the segments towards the stylar end. The rind is leathery, furrowed, and adherent. The inner portion thick, white and fleshy – the outer uniformly thin, and very fragrant. The pulp is usually acidic, but also sweet and even pulpless varieties are found.Most citron varieties contain a large number of seeds. The monoembryonic seeds are white colored; with dark innercoat and red-purplish chalazal spot for the acidic varieties, and colorless for the sweet ones. Some citron varieties are also distinct with their persistent style , which is highly appreciated by the Jewish community. [ clarification needed ] The fingered Citron Some citrons have medium sized oil bubbles at the outer surface, medially distant to each other. Some fruits are ribbed and faintly warted on the outer surface, adding life and attraction to its beauty. There is also a fingered citron variety called Buddha's Hand .The color varies from green, when unripe, to a yellow-orange when overripe. The citron does not fall from the tree and can reach 8–10 pounds (4–5 kg) if not picked when ripe or even early [ 5 ] . [ clarification needed ] However, they should be picked before the winter as the branches might break, or bend to the ground and may cause numerous fungal diseases for the tree.The slow-growing shrub or small tree reaches a height of about 8 to 15 ft (2.4-4.5 m); has irregular straggling branches and stiff twigs and long spines at the leaf axils . The evergreen leaves are green and lemon scented with slightly serrate edges, ovate-lanceolate or ovate elliptic 2½ to 7 inch long. Petioles are usually wingless or with minor wings. The flowers are generally unisexual providing self-pollination , but some male individuals could be found due to pistil abortion . The clustered flowers of the acidic varieties are purplish tinted from outside, but the sweet ones are white-yellowish.The acidic varieties include the Florentine and Diamante citron from Italy , the Greek citron and the Balady citron from Palestine . The sweet varieties include the Corsican and Moroccan citrons . Between the pulpless are also some fingered varieties and the Yemenite citron .The citron tree is very vigorous with almost no dormancy, blooming several times a year, and is therefore fragile and extremely sensitive. [ 6 ] The farmer's choice is to graft it onto foreign rootstock, but since this practice is forbidden by rabbinical Jewish Law [ 7 ] , the progeny will not be kosher for the Jewish ritual.Despite the variation among the cultivars, authorities agree that the citron species is a very old one. There is molecular evidence that all other cultivated citrus species only arose by hybridization among the ancestral types, which are the citron , pummelo , mandarin and papeda .The citron is believed to be the purest of them all, since it is usually fertilized by self-pollination , it hardly accepts foreign pollen, and is therefore considered to be the male parent rather than a female one. [ 8 ]