Ju He

Citrus reticulata, the mandarin orange, is a small evergreen tree in the family Rutaceae, native to southern China and Southeast Asia and widely cultivated in subtropical regions. It typically grows 4-8 meters tall, with slender, often spiny branches and a rounded crown. The alternate, lanceolate to elliptic leaves are glossy dark green, leathery, and aromatic when crushed, with narrowly winged petioles. Small, fragrant, white five-petaled flowers are borne singly or in small axillary clusters. The fruit is an oblate hesperidium, 4-8 cm across, with a thin, loose, easily separable orange rind and segmented juicy orange pulp containing several small, ovoid, pointed seeds with smooth pale yellowish-white coats. Ju He refers specifically to these dried mandarin seeds.