In the 1960s a seedling citrus was discovered growing underneath a Nagami kumquat tree in Orlando Florida that produced an unusual kumquat-like hybrid fruit. Budwood from that seedling was sent to USDA citrus researchers in Indio California for further evaluation and they eventually decided to release the new hybrid commercially under the name “Indio Mandarinquat.” For many years now Indio has been available in Texas through the certified citrus budwood program in Weslaco (along with the very similar “Nippon Orangequat”) and budded Indio trees were offered for wholesale by Brazos Citrus Nursery. Prior to the recent Texas citrus quarantine restrictions, Greenleaf Nursery also grew and sold rooted cuttings of Indio. In the past few years Indio budwood from Weslaco has become available in only limited quantities and sadly commercial growers are longer offering Indio trees to retail sellers.
The plant itself is probably about as winter hardy as kumquats. Our cutting-grown in-ground Greenleaf Indio tree (in The Woodlands north of Houston) is about 10 years old, around 7 feet tall, and reliably produces about 15-20 pounds of fruit each year, in 2-3 flowering flushes each year. It gets protected by only a large tarp for sub-20s F freezes. Here it is a couple days ago:
The fruits are about golf ball sized and the main (first flush) crop ripens in late November and throughout December. The thin peel is sweet (like a kumquat), but the very juicy and seedy interior is quite tart (about like a calamondin):
Dead-ripe I can eat only a few of these out-of-hand before I start to worry about my teeth enamel dissolving. They do, however, make amazing marmalade and stewed sauce (with lots of sugar!), and I have made several wonderful “lime” pies with the tart, but very flavorful juice. Martha Stewart and other chefs have a large number of Indio desert recipes online and I have sometimes seen the fruit for sale at our local grocery store in winter. If you live in the greater Houston area, I will have samples of our home-grown Indio fruit available for tasting (if you dare) at the free TRFG citrus tasting event in Houston on Saturday, Dec. 6.