# Oranges: Really green? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 7, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958 "2000-02-07T21:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/1 "2000-02-07T21:39:00Z")
I heard it said that a ripe orange dies not have an orange skin. The orange color is induced by man’s intervention. Is this correct? If true, sounds like someone’s going to awful lot of trouble! ---
**Author:** ![Cap\_n\_Crude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Cap\_n\_Crude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cap_n_Crude)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/2 "2000-02-07T21:43:00Z")
I’ve heard the same thing. It seems that some oranges are oranger than others – juice oranges (the sort that are generally used to make commercial OJ) tend to be green with some yellow and orange. Other breeds are more colorful of skin – I’m sure that some are this way naturally, while some have been bred to the color, and still others might be dyed through some process during/after growing. Any citrus mavens have better data? * * * –Da Cap’n “Playin’ solitaire 'til dawn With a deck of fifty-one.” ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/3 "2000-02-07T21:47:00Z")
My parents send me a box of Florida oranges for Xmas every year. There’s one on my desk right now. According to a card put in with the oranges, if the winter is harsh the oranges will put more energy into skin pigmentation and will be more orange. If the winter is mild less energy will go to pigment and more to raising the sugar content of the fruit, which makes for a sweeter orange. True? I dunno but it sounds good and the oranges taste just fine. I have noticed that the more orange the skin is the thicker it is. ---
**Author:** ![cher3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cher3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cher3)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/4 "2000-02-07T22:06:00Z")
All the oranges I’ve seen on backyard trees here in southern CA are orange when they are ripe. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/5 "2000-02-08T01:15:00Z")
All the oranges in Viet Nam are green, but the sweetness is comparable to the orange oranges we have here. Strangely, they still call them oranges (cam) over there. ---
**Author:** ![NanoByte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecc23a/32.png) [@NanoByte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NanoByte)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/6 "2000-02-08T01:30:00Z")
All the oranges on backyard trees in NorCal worth eating, although not to SoCal specs, are orange. Ray (Are all those Orangemen in N. Ireland actually really green?) ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/7 "2000-02-08T13:09:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Greg Charles: > \*\*All the oranges in Viet Nam are green, but the sweetness is comparable to the orange oranges we have here. Strangely, they still call them oranges (cam) over there. \*\* I guess there could be different varieties. I wonder if the same is true with other citrus fruits: lemons, limes, comquots(sp?) and so on ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/8 "2000-02-08T14:05:00Z")
Oranges don’t necessarily turn orange when ripe. It’s not uncommon for them to have some green yet be fully ripe. However, since people think that oranges have to be orange, growers sometimes take ripe but green oranges, remove the natural color, and dye them orange. In the supermarkets, all oranges are completely orange, but when you get them directly from Florida, they often have green patches. * * * “East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. [www.sff.net/people/rothman](http://www.sff.net/people/rothman) ---
**Author:** ![frolix8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@frolix8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frolix8)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/9 "2000-02-08T16:35:00Z")
Here’s a site with some info on oranges: [http://www2.dominionfertility.com/annex/library/cic/X0037\_freshfr.txt.html](http://www2.dominionfertility.com/annex/library/cic/X0037_freshfr.txt.html) It says some oranges are artificially colored. I grew up in a northern state and all of the oranges I can remember were a bright orange color. In southern states where oranges are produced they don’t seem to color them as often. The bright orange oranges are always uniformly orange and they are waxed to make them shiny. Even oranges that are orange when ripe don’t have that same intense orange that the dyed ones do. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/10 "2000-02-08T16:53:00Z")
> [@](#): > > All the oranges in Viet Nam are green, but the sweetness is comparable to the orange oranges we have here. Is the flesh also orange? Perhaps the name derives from the flesh color rather than the skin. Any cooks have any information on how commercial dyes affect the flavor of orange zest? ---
**Author:** ![Prose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Prose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prose)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2000, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/11 "2000-02-08T17:38:00Z")
no recipes, sorry. but just like tree leaves, all fruit and veggies, have pigmentation which usually decreases with sunlight, allowing the second(if there is one) colour to start being used for energy. when a tree-not an evergreen-goes through stages, green=spring/summer, the chlorophil inside the leaves is the first to get used up, then in fall, leaves start to either yellow, orange, or red depending on the type of tree, this next colour is dependant on the type of chemical pigmentation that the tree naturally has. sorry I can’t remember the rest of the pigments ☹ but the same thing with oranges, orange is usually beta-karoteen(sp I know) hense why when you eat too many carrots your skin colour can take on an orangey tinge(you’d have to eat a whole lot of carrots) all apples have chlorophil= why they’re green before they’re ripe, but some apples only have chlorophil=why they’re always green(Granny Smiths) and then most have a second pigmentation which turns them red with sunlight. that’s my take have a great day everyone 😃 * * * I am a fire whose flames lick and spit at the boundless sky forever desiring wonderous consummation -me ---
**Author:** ![rjk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ed655f/32.png) [@rjk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjk)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2000, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oranges-really-green/6958/12 "2000-02-09T20:24:00Z")
Then again, some oranges go **past** orange. These are the best! From [http://www.starkpack.com/varchrt.htm](http://www.starkpack.com/varchrt.htm) : > [@](#): > > The Moro orange also known as the “blood orange” was brought to America in 1930 by Italian and Spanish Immigrants. It’s only since the 1950’s and 60’s that they’ve been extensively grown in Italy, particularly eastern Sicily, where blood oranges are now the predominant variety. Moro’s usually have a bright red to deep maroon interior and orange with a red blush exterior. The flavor is a rich orange taste with a hint of raspberry. ## Another link is [http://www.comevisit.com/chuckali/citrus/citrusg2.htm](http://www.comevisit.com/chuckali/citrus/citrusg2.htm) . Bob the Random Expert “If we don’t have the answer, we’ll make one up.”