Yes, there are benefits to living in the desert after all, one of them is the taste of Arizona grapefruit aka citrus paradisi. None of this cardboard thin skinned sissified grapefruit from some other unnamed states, a real thick skinned grapefruit you can peel and eat off the tree just like an orange or a tangerine. Grapefruit and grapefruit trees have been permanent fixtures in my yard nearly all my life. As children, I don't think we really thought of them as food. We used them as ammunition to throw at each other. They were so common that they would drop off the trees and be thrown away. It seemed that no one person or family could eat all of the grapefruit from even one tree and our yard always had several. Now, crews of senior citizens scour the neighborhoods for all kinds of citrus to pick and take to local food banks.
Grapefruit are members of the citrus genus of the Rutaceae or Rue family. Here is the classification from the USDA:
I found it amazingly interesting that the United States Department of Agriculture shows only four states for the distribution of citrus and Arizona is not one of them. One of the few things I remember from grade school was the 5 C's of Arizona and citrus is one of them. Of course, citrus trees do not originally come from the American continents but originated in the tropical islands of the Caribbean. Purdue University has a very interesting summary of the history of grapefruit but ignores Arizona other than to note that it was commercially grown in 1910. It is true, despite the 5 C's, Arizona's production of grapefruit is a very small percentage of that grown in other states (unnamed). But, if you even get a chance to eat a real Arizona grapefruit, you will never by one of the cardboard substitutes again.
Grapefruit are members of the citrus genus of the Rutaceae or Rue family. Here is the classification from the USDA:
| Kingdom | Plantae – Plants |
| Subkingdom | Tracheobionta – Vascular plants |
| Superdivision | Spermatophyta – Seed plants |
| Division | Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants |
| Class | Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons |
| Subclass | Rosidae |
| Order | Sapindales |
| Family | Rutaceae – Rue family |
| Genus | Citrus L. – citrus |
I found it amazingly interesting that the United States Department of Agriculture shows only four states for the distribution of citrus and Arizona is not one of them. One of the few things I remember from grade school was the 5 C's of Arizona and citrus is one of them. Of course, citrus trees do not originally come from the American continents but originated in the tropical islands of the Caribbean. Purdue University has a very interesting summary of the history of grapefruit but ignores Arizona other than to note that it was commercially grown in 1910. It is true, despite the 5 C's, Arizona's production of grapefruit is a very small percentage of that grown in other states (unnamed). But, if you even get a chance to eat a real Arizona grapefruit, you will never by one of the cardboard substitutes again.
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