Common Grapefruit

Citrus decumana, Common Shaddock

In the 18th century, an English captain named Shaddock brought a spectacular citrus fruit from India, so exquisite that it was named forbidden fruit, as its flavor seemed to surpass anything that the earthly paradise could offer.

This shaddock, ancestor of the modern grapefruit, quickly became a prized curiosity in European orangeries, where several varieties were cultivated, distinguished by their smooth or pubescent branches, their crisp leaves, and especially their monumental fruits.

The Common Shaddock is recognizable by its robust, angular, and beautifully green branches, bearing large, thick, pale green leaves with a broadly winged petiole, a distinctive characteristic of the species.

Its white flowers, grouped in bouquets, reach 54 to 80 millimeters in diameter, exuding a sweet fragrance, but different from that of other orange trees. They have only four petals, a constant botanical detail.

The fruit, true to its Latin name decumana ("very large"), has a finely shagreened surface, a greenish-yellow paler than that of a lemon. Its exceptionally thick skin, white or slightly pinkish, contains sixteen small compartments of vesicular, greenish, slightly acidic pulp.

Taking eighteen months to ripen, this spectacular fruit was cultivated in Paris more for its ornamental beauty than for consumption.

This plate is taken from Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of botanical illustration.