Fruit, Grain, and Global Crop Migration

Citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons, and limes, originated in Southeast Asia and southern China, where wild and cultivated citrus species have grown for thousands of years before spreading westward along trade routes including the Silk Road and the Indian Ocean network. Citrus reached the Mediterranean world in antiquity, with citrons documented in the region by the first millennium BCE, but sweet oranges and lemons became widely established only later, spread in part by Arab traders and agriculturalists across North Africa, Sicily, and Iberia during the medieval period. From the Mediterranean, Spanish and Portuguese voyages carried citrus to the Americas beginning with Columbus's second voyage in 1493, and citrus cultivation later took root in Florida, California, and Brazil, regions that by the twentieth century had become among the world's largest citrus producers, completing a journey of many centuries from Southeast Asian forests to global agribusiness.