Citrus taxonomy
All of these hybrids have in turn been bred back with their parent stocks or with other pure or hybrid citrus to form a broad array of fruits. Naming of these is inconsistent, with some bearing a variant of the name of one of the parents or simply another citrus with superficially-similar fruit, a distinct name, or a portmanteau of ancestral species. The Ponderosa lemon ("Citrus limon" × "medica") and Florentine citron ("Citrus x limonimedica") are both true lemon/citron hybrids, the Bergamot orange is a sweet orange/lemon hybrid and the Oroblanco is a grapefruit/pomelo mix, while tangelos are tangerine (mandarin)/pomelo or mandarin/grapefruit hybrids, orangelos result from grapefruit backcrossed with sweet orange, and a sweet orange backcrossed with a tangerine gives the tangor. One lumia, a member of the sweet lemons, is the product of crossing a lemon with a pomelo/citron hybrid, though another lumia variety, the Pomme d'Adam, is a micrantha/citron cross, like the Key lime. The most common and commercially popular 'limes', the Persian limes, are Key lime/lemon hybrids that combine the genetic lineages of four ancestral citrus species: mandarin, pomelo, citron and micrantha.
Citrus
The large citrus fruit of today evolved originally from small, edible berries over millions of years. Citrus plants diverged from a common ancestor about 15 million years ago, which was about when it diverged from the closely related severinia, for example the Chinese box orange. About 7 million years ago, citrus plants diverged into two groups, the main citrus genus and the ancestors of the trifoliate orange (poncirus), which is closely enough related that it can still be hybridized with all other citrus. These estimates are made using genetic mapping of plant chloroplasts. A DNA study published in "Nature" in 2018 concludes that citrus trees originated in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the area of Assam (India), western Yunnan (China), and northern Myanmar.