General Information
The ugli or ugli fruit is a Jamaican form of tangelo, a citrus fruit created by hybridizing a grapefruit (or pomelo), an orange and a tangerine. UGLI is a registered trademark of Cabel Hall Citrus Limited, under which it markets the fruit. An ugli fruit is faintly bigger than a grapefruit. It is widely cultivated for their juicy edible fruits which have tough aromatic rinds. The taste is more likely to be lemon-tangerine hybrid fruit. It was discovered growing wild (possibly having developed in the same way grapefruit was created in Jamaica, where it is mainly grown today.
The light-green surface blemishes turn orange when the fruit is at its peak ripeness. The flesh is very juicy and tends towards the sweet side of the tangerine rather than the bitter side of its grapefruit lineage, with a fragrant rind.
History
Ugli™ fruit was discovered growing wild in 1924 by a gentleman named F.G. Sharp at Trout Hall, near Brown’s Town in Jamaica. Ugli™ fruit was developed commercially by the same family which discovered the original tree and was originally marketed as The Exotic Tangelo from Jamaica™. Today, the Ugli™ fruit is grown and exported from Jamaica and Florida.
