'Rangpur' lime and 'Sour' orange are important citrus rootstocks. Aiming to explore their genetic potential, several 'Rangpur' lime selections, as female parents, were crossed with 'Sour' orange selections, 'Sunki Maravilha' mandarin and Poncirus trifoliata hybrids. In the same way, 'Sour' orange selections were crossed with 'Rangpur' lime selections and P. trifoliata hybrids. Parameters evaluated were: fruit set, percentage of hybrids out of the total number of seedlings (zygotes and nucellars), stem height and diameter of the hybrids at 12 months of age. The common and 'Santa Cruz' selections of 'Rangpur' lime x 'Sunki Maravilha' mandarin had the highest fruit set (87.5% on average) and the highest percentage of hybrids (64.0% on average), which were relatively vigorous compared to 'Rangpur' lime seedlings of nucellar origin. With regard to the hybridization with 'Sour' oranges, the 'Jacarandá' sour orange x ('Cleopatra' mandarin x P. trifoliata 'Swingle 245' selection) was promising, due to the relatively high fruit set (50%), good percentage of hybrids (32.3%) and the possibility of obtaining vigorous hybrids, and also common 'Sour' orange x 'Rangpur' lime common and 'Santa Cruz' selections for the possibility of obtaining vigorous hybrids in relatively high amounts, around 40%.
Genetic breeding; Citrus limonia; C. aurantium; Poncirus; Fortunella
