Hello,

My name is Gary and I'm from the UK.

For a hobby, I grow various fully tropical and subtropical species, including citrus, as indoor houseplants. My interest lies mainly in edible, medicinal, aromatic and ethnobotanical tropicals and subtropicals.

Recently I managed to obtain seed-bearing fruits of citrus bergamia, bergamot orange, which is grown commercially in the mild Calabrian region of Southern Italy.

According to the literature, the seeds of bergamot orange are monoembryonic. If I planted a batch of, say, 20 seeds, would I get any seedlings that bear any resemblance to the parent plant? I'm growing these for fun, so fruit quality is not particularly important. Does the foliage of seed-grown bergamot orange, citrus bergamia, possess the characteristic aroma of bergamot? I have a background in organic chemistry and am hoping to put my knowledge to practical use by extracting the essential oils (pettigrain oil of bergamot) from the leaves.