The grapefruit’s scientific name gives away its association with the sun-drenched islands of the Caribbean: Citrus paradis.
The story of the grapefruit begins in southeastern China and Japans with its nearest relative the shaddock or pummelo.
The shaddock was named for Captain Shaddock, an English ship commander of an East Indian ship who brought the seeds of the large fruit from China to Barbados during the seventeenth century.
Trees of it were growing there in 1687 during the visit of Hans Sloane to Barbados, who was in the island in that year. Hans Sloane was a physician and naturalist.
Griffith Hughes in 1750 first mentioned grapefruit as being found in Barbados and Patrick Browne reported it from Jamaica under the names ‘forbidden fruit’ and ‘smaller shaddock’.
The first recorded use of the word ‘grapefruit’ was by John Lunan in 1814, who also assumed it to be a variety of the pummelo or shaddock.
About 1809 a Spanish nobleman Don Philippe, migrated to Florida and first planting grapefruit in the United States.
The originally grapefruit varieties planted in Florida were the seedy types such as the Duncan.
In 1895 the March Seedless was introduced; since then both the seedless as well as the seedy varieties have been planted extensively.
History of grapefruit
