【Digital】Hand-drawn Orange with Blossom Botanical Art Print — Digital Download

Hand-drawn botanical illustration, Orange (Citrus sinensis), digital download (no physical item is shipped) I drew the sweet orange with its blossom, because an orange tree is one of the few plants that can carry flowers and ripe fruit on the same branch. The fruit of one season often hangs on while the next season's flowers open around it, and I wanted the plate to hold both moments at once: the white, thick-petalled flowers with their crown of yellow stamens, the dark leathery leaves, the whole fruit, and a half cut open beside it. The whole fruit taught me about the peel. Seen closely it is covered in tiny pits, each one an oil gland, and it is those glands that release the scent the moment you start to peel. I kept the texture across the whole surface without letting it turn into a pattern, and let the colour move from a pale yellow where the light falls to a deeper orange at the edges, so the fruit reads as round and heavy rather than as a flat disc. The cut half shows what the peel hides. The segments radiate from a white central core, each packed with juice vesicles, tiny sacs that grow inward from the segment wall, and the white pith between peel and flesh is rich in pectin. Drawing the vesicles meant following the direction of each segment, because every one of them points toward the centre. The sweet orange is not a wild species. It is an ancient hybrid of the pomelo and the mandarin that arose in southern China and has been propagated by grafting ever since, so every named variety is a clone of a single original tree. The scientific name says where it came from: Citrus sinensis, the citrus from China. When it reached Europe, the name followed the route. Portuguese traders brought sweet oranges west in quantity in the sixteenth century, and in Greek, Turkish and Arabic the fruit is still called by a version of the word "Portugal". In Dutch it is sinaasappel, the Chinese apple. In Italy oranges are winter fruit, stacked in crates at the market from December, and the blossom follows in spring. The plate puts the two seasons on one branch, which is how a grower sees the tree and almost nobody else does. SPECIMEN NOTES - Scientific name: Citrus sinensis, family Rutaceae; also written Citrus × sinensis to mark its hybrid origin - Common names: sweet orange; arancia (Italian), naranja (Spanish), sinaasappel (Dutch), portokali (Greek) - Origin: an ancient hybrid of pomelo (Citrus maxima) and mandarin (Citrus reticulata), from southern China - Propagation: named varieties such as Navel and Valencia are grafted, so each tree is a clone of the original - Peel: the outer layer (flavedo) is dotted with oil glands holding the essential oil, mainly limonene; the white inner layer (albedo) is rich in pectin - Flesh: usually 10–13 segments, each filled with juice vesicles - Colour: the orange colour develops as nights cool; in the tropics, ripe fruit may stay green - Blossom: white, thick-petalled and strongly scented, opening in spring, often while the previous crop still hangs; in European tradition, orange blossom was worn by brides - Leaves: evergreen, glossy and leathery, on a narrowly winged leaf stalk - Season in Europe: winter, roughly December to April for Mediterranean crops - Name route: Dutch sinaasappel means "Chinese apple"; Greek portokali comes from "Portugal" - Nutrition: a good source of vitamin C ON THE WALL, OR AS A GIFT The orange suits a kitchen or a breakfast corner, where it adds a single note of warm colour to a pale wall. It pairs with the lemon, fig and pomegranate plates for a Mediterranean fruit group, and sits comfortably in Scandinavian, farmhouse or Mediterranean interiors. A white or natural oak frame keeps it fresh; a narrow brass frame makes it warmer. As a gift it works for Lunar New Year, when oranges are exchanged for good fortune, for a housewarming, or for a wedding, in memory of the old European custom of orange blossom for brides.