The orange tree, where it came from and how it got here

Roger Boddaert

Special to the Village News

With your morning paper, let’s unpeel the orange fruit’s history over a glass of breakfast O.J. and its global travels.

History tells us that the original fossil of the sour orange dates back millions of years ago to China with the wild species and does not resemble anything like today’s round, brightly colored orange fruit.

Fast forward to the 11th century, and the orange traveled throughout the Arab world to Persia, Egypt, Palestine, North Africa, and beyond. The word “orange” derives from the Sanskrit word naranga and, as it moved north into Europe...