Mandarin Chernomorsky (№320, hybrid 320, Chernomorsky 320) is a hybrid of mandarin unshiu and mandarin Shiva-mikan created by Zorin F. M.plugin-autotooltip__default plugin-autotooltip_bigZorin, Fyodor Mikhailovich
Fyodor Mikhailovich Zorin (1904-1967) was a breeder of various fruit plants, including citrus. Pupil of Michurin. PhD in agricultural sciences (1944). Bred valuable varieties of mandarin, grapefruit, lemon, plum, fig, and hazelnut. Author of many scientific and popular scientific works. Author of several books on the flora of the Russian subtropics. at the Sochi Experimental Station.
Zorin's 1964 description1):
Mandarin No. 320 (Chernomorsky variety). Obtained from crossing Unshiu mandarin with Shiva-mikan.
Plant with a broad pyramidal crown, the lower branches come off almost at right angles, the upper branches vertically. Past growth is brown, turning to green, young shoots are smooth, green, round or flat, ribbed. Spines thick, small or absent on young shoots.
Leaves on lower shoots are large, averaging 9.2 cm in length and 5.7 cm in width, oval in shape, acuminate toward the apex, with pronounced furrowing. Leaves on upper shoots are shallower and more appressed to the shoot, thick, bright green in color, with equally pronounced nervation on the upper and lower sides of the lamina. The ethereal glands are clearly visible when the leaf is translucent. Petiole 1.8 cm long, sometimes with a pronounced winglet. Seedling blooms 5-6 days earlier than Unshiu mandarin, flowers are white with a creamy tinge, with wider petals and a thicker pistil than in mandarin. The anthers are unopened and no viable pollen is formed under normal conditions. Flowers appear singly in leaf axils on the previous and current year's growth, in the latter case the young growth ends with a flower, from which the fruit develops later.
The fruit is flat-oval in shape, weighing 60-70 g (height 4 cm, width 5 cm). The rind is up to 2 mm thick, golden yellow, shiny, smooth, sometimes lumpy in some areas, well separated from the segments. The flesh is yellow with an orange tinge, of sweet flavor, coarser than that of the Unshiu mandarin. The nest consists of 10-11 segments covered with a rather dense film. In the fruit there are seeds in the amount of 5-7 pieces. They have an irregular shape and green-colored seedpods.
The seedling surpasses Unshiu mandarin in frost resistance and early maturity. It bore fruit for the first time at the age of seven, in 1942. The fruits ripened in late October.
In the winter of 1941/42, the seedling lost 10% of its leaves and 5% of its annual growth. After the winter of 1950, two plants grafted onto Poncirus trifoliata retained their crowns, five plants froze to the base of the branches, but none of them died.
It is not found in private collections under this name. It is present in the collection of Subtropical Scientifi c Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. May be present in private plantings on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.