One of the reasons stated why people are interested in C. Wakonai is its ability to fruit from seed in one year, and thereby hoping to transfer the earlier blooming ability into other citrus cultivars. In the book "Citrus Genetics, Breeding & Biotechnology" the book explains that one of the on going efforts by the Citrus Genetic Improvement Program, started in 2007, is genetic research to hopefully find a possible genetic cause for the long juvenile time period in citrus tree cultivars. Through research, efforts such a gene transfer and other avenues hopefully this can be accomplished in the not to distant future. - Millet

Bussone. i'm thinking the "Microcitrus" have been in their locations for a very long time. If you look at Citranges Wakonai page, the map shows 3 species in 3 locations. Not so far apart in Km, but seperated by mountain, ocean and jungle. The same is for Australia, in fact the ancient rainforest has disappeared between the locations of the Australian "Microcitrus" species, maybe leaving them to evolve seperately.
It's unlikely that Citrus could be widely dispersed to India, by birds/bats otherwise why are they not dispersed over PNG ?
Fruit bats and Fruit pigeons can disperse small fruit and seed widely, but fingerlimes etc are understory species. They are pretty similar to many other fruit species eaten by the Cassowary, a major disperser of rainforest fruit. The limited range of "Microcitrus" in PNG could be due to geographic barriers, preventing Cassowary movement ?

http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/wildlife/threatened-species/endangered/endangered-animals/cassowary.html
Cassowary are not found in NSW, but many large fruited rainforest species still are, suggesting they once were.
Even the vivid colours of NSW Fingerlimes could be Cassowary attractants, similar to the birds colourful head ?
Vivid red, blue, purple, yellow, fruit are common colours of Cassowary food fruit in other species

Having found all the information I can about Citrus wakonai, I have officially added it to HomeCitrusGrowers at
http://www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/australiannativecitrus/citruswakonai.html
The final version has a slightly modified map of PNG citrus locations, and two new photos showing the native habitat of C. wakonai.
If anyone finds out anything more - let me know.
Mike.

On the south coast, the first bay before Alotau is named Orangerie bay!

Yes, I noticed that too - must find out why!

There are 700€ in the pot now:
Citrange 200 Citrus grower
Sylvain 200 Citrus grower, Agrume-Passion
Foufouche 100 Agrume-Passion
And Setsu 200 Agrume-Passion

And 4 plants to find:
Clymenia polyandra
Citrus wakonai
Citrus warburgiana
Citrus wintersii (papuana)
and maybe more...

Two months to do it:
September, October.

Who is going to obtain, and pay for all the proper permits to go into these countries to cut and remove the plant material wanted? Then secondly, who is going to obtain and pay the required permits to bring these agricultural specimens back into the receiving country? Third, who is going to pay for the very extensive quarantine procedures, and the VERY looooong quarantine time that the authorities of the receiving country will surely require? (this will be the biggest cost af all). The receiving countries are not going to issue these type of permits just to any common Jack or Jane person who shows up and says give the permits to me. - Millet

Millet is absolutely right.

Neither US nor Eu are going to give import permits and possibly PNG will not issue collection permits or export permits. In those circumstances quarantine is a red herring, just will not get to that stage.

It would have to be a qualified botanist doing the collecting with seeds going to the USDA quarantine greenhouses in Washington and if all goes well a release date in the 2020's to Riverside or Winter Haven. The situation is more complex in Europe with each citrus growing country having its own quarantine area. San Guilliamo on Corsica possibly most likely public institute or tintori in italy as private business may be options.

Having said that if there was even a slight prospect I'd pledge 300euro's for Sylvian to go, just need more convincing its viable.

Just to make whole enterprise a lot more difficult could we drop off in China and get some Poncirus polyandra seed as well.


OK! Another greening endemic area with all the consequent problems.

Well I can dream can't I?

As far as I can ascertain, there are no restrictions on importing citrus seeds into the EU.
Sylvain needs to check whether seed collection and export from PNG is permitted. Certainly it has been allowed in the past. In fact, it is generally accepted that 'ex situ' propagation of rare species is a good idea - so long as it does not adversely affect native populations.

Countries have become much more protective of their floral and fauna resources. With PNG"s proximity to Australia it is likely to have protective legislation in place along similar lines.

Think import laws for Europe are based on same standard as US to prevent spread of greening. Greening has not been proved to be spread by seed.

Maybe could get seed in via Switzerland. Perhaps seed initially could go to a Ukrainian member and from there to rest of Eu when they become a member.

Problem is Ukraine is not looking likely to acede soon as entry term have been thrown open to discussion again.