Some trees produce food that are both tasty and nutritious, and that is the fruit. A large part of citrus fruit has the particularity of its harvest being made in Winter, a time not so common for fruit picking, but certainly when we need them the most.

A vitamin source, citrus fruits are widely used in juices and fragrances and are enjoyed by almost everyone. They are trees that we like to have in our gardens, because in addition to being beautiful and fragrant, they give us these delicious fruits that we then stop needing to purchase.

They are trees of the Citrus genus, such as: sweet and sour orange tree, mandarin tree, lemon tree, lime tree, grapefruit tree and kumquat tree, more abundant in the south of the country due to their need for sunlight.

Citrus fruits enjoy a lot of sun and heat, and cannot withstand very low temperatures, which destroy new shoots. Thus, in the gardens of the Renaissance, the Orangerie appeared, an area usually exposed to the south, with large arches where the orange trees were placed in pots, which were protected from the cold of Winter and later placed in the gardens. As glass was created, greenhouses started appearing.

The Orangerie were a sign of distinction in aristocratic residences, like the Orangerie arcades in the Versailles Palace, or the glazed building of the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, which inspired several others, and is where we can find the Orangerie museum today.

There are also similar structures in the historic gardens, mainly designed for lemon trees, called Limonaias. An example of these is the Limonaia of the Medici’s Boboli gardens in Florence, which today contain numerous varieties of rare lemon trees.

Another famous citrus garden is the Páteo de Los Naranjos in the Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, a patio with orange trees that is arranged in a rectangular pattern and is associated with a grid of irrigation channels with stone circles around the trees.

But it is not always simple to have and maintain these fruit trees.

The African psyllid (Trioza erytreae) is an insect that attacks citrus fruits by transmitting a bacteria (Candidatus Liberibacter Africanus) that destroys them. Despite being transmitted directly and in natural conditions in Africa (hence the name) and in the Middle East, this has caused great damage to citrus fruits in Portugal. If it is not controlled, there may be a big drop in production or it might even mean the end for these fruit trees.

The Regional Directorate for Agriculture and Fisheries of the Center encourages owners of citrus trees in certain municipalities, namely the center and north of the country, to carry out certain phytosanitary protection measures, such as pruning and destruction of affected branches and treatment with authorised insecticides. Its marketing is even prohibited in some regions of the country.

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Amália Souto de Miranda

Landscape Architect – Loci Studio

www.locistudio.pt