I joke that I live in the Siberia of Florida-but it is really true-nearby Tallahassee to my south had the record cold low for our state back in 1899 when the thermometer dropped to -2degrees F, last century Tallahassee once again had the century record low for Florida of 6 degrees F in 1985. When I moved to my new home here in the country outside of Havana,FL I noticed some large seedling oranges growing alongside the road that I live on.They have fruited each year since 2002-last year I met the owners who told me that they are seedlings that they started themselves,I tried them and they tasted good-somewhat like 'Pineapple'Orange.They have no idea of what variety of orange they were eating-of course-BUT whatever their origin they are doing quite well and may be worthy of propagation.One note though- they are at the top of a hill with excellent air drainage and the owners also have an impressive grapefruit growing at their home that I will have to tell you about later-(I personally was not impressed with the fruit quality of their seedling grapefruit-and I am a grapefruit lover)I have seen cold injury to the new growth of these oranges-I am guessing that they get at least some new growth injury nearly every year (except for last year).
Here is a shot of 3 of the 4 seedling oranges they have and a couple of closeups-

Good looking trees, thanks for the post David.

Thanks David. There are some old seedling oranges, grapefruit and tangerines here in my area, as well as scattered around the SC, GA coastal areas. The pictures you have posted show multi-trunks. I have been taking that as a sign that they froze back and regrew from the part that didn't freeze. Anyone else know if this might be true?

Ned

I know at least of several Valenia Orange trees and mandarins that looked like multi-trunk around our area, and the worst damage was just a nip in the upper canopy. No freeze damage history. My Owari Satsuma has three trunks that seem to come out from the ground. All the trunks are Owari Satsuma.

Thanks Joe. The multi-trunk characteristic might just be the natural growth habit of some seedlings. A number of the seedlings here seem to have multi trunks. I see them both single and multi-trunk.

Ned

Ned, certainly, a freeze injury that damages the top part of the trunk can result in multi-trunk tree. IIRC, I think a lemon tree of a friend came about like that way back in our record freeze during 1990's when it got down to 12 deg F in his yard. The lemon tree's entire canopy died, he cut it like a stump and then grew 4 main trunks and became productive after a couple of years and stayed that way unitl about 5 years ago, he chainsawed the other 3 trunks and is now back to a single trunk.

That is a pretty good reason for growing lemons, and other citrus as rooted cuttings, whenever they on their own roots, particularly where they are subject to periodic freeze back.

I am really tempted to start some citrus from seed again (I played with some back in the '70's-but they have all been frozen years ago ).I have noticed that nearly all seedlings-including these growing on my road-are very thorny.Would budding from one of these thorny trees result in equally thorny trees? Sorry Dr.Coultas (my old Citrus culture professor) if you are reading this-you probably told us in class-but I can't remember.

Most citrus grown from seed will have less thorns as they mature. If you take buds from the upper canopy they should have less thorns.

Those are some impressive trees for that area David. Maybe when I get some rootstocks ready, I could get a piece of one for grafting.

Hi Sketter,
That sounds like a good plan-I will have to get you some budwood next spring.I want to plant some Flying Dragon seed to grow my own rootstocks.I have been told to start growing more trees for our campus (I am the assistant director of Grounds at FSU)-we currently have only 3 small citrus trees on over 500 acres of campus! I have access to regular trifoliata seed and may plant some next week.