Mandarin is the species. Tangerines and clementines are both mandarins. "Tangerine" is an old American trade name, first given to a seedy, red-orange mandarin said to come from Tangier, Morocco. A clementine is a specific mandarin type from Algeria. It is usually seedless and sold from November to January.
So the question of mandarin vs tangerine vs clementine is about one fruit, Citrus reticulata, and two of the many names people use for its varieties. UC Riverside counts the mandarin as one of 3 original citrus species, along with citron and pummelo; sweet oranges have mandarin in their ancestry. The confusion comes from the names, and from brands like Cuties and Halos that put several varieties in the same bag across a season.
Mandarin vs tangerine vs clementine, side by side
The table below sorts the names you'll see on signs and bags in California. Every row except the tangelo is a mandarin. Seasons are for California unless noted.
| Name | What it is | Seeds | California season | Where the name comes from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin | The species, Citrus reticulata, one of the 3 original citrus species | Depends on the variety | Oct–June, across all varieties | The umbrella term |
| Tangerine (Dancy) | A mandarin variety with a deep reddish-orange rind | About 6–20 per fruit | Dec–Feb at Riverside | A tree said to come from Tangier, Morocco, grown in Florida by 1843 |
| Clementine | A mandarin type; the original was a chance seedling in Algeria | None, unless cross-pollinated | Nov–Jan in stores; Oct–Dec at Riverside | Named after Brother Clement, at the Algerian orphanage where it grew |
| Satsuma (Owari) | A mandarin group from Japan, Citrus unshiu | None | Dec–Jan in most of California | Satsuma province in southern Japan; Owari, the main variety, is named for another province |
| W. Murcott | A mandarin hybrid with a little orange in its ancestry (a tangor), brought from Morocco in 1985 | Low alone, seedy when cross-pollinated | Feb–Apr | Also sold as Afourer and Delite |
| Tango | A nearly seedless W. Murcott, bred at UC Riverside | 0.04–0.2 per fruit | Late Jan–Apr | UC Riverside release, patented |
| Pixie | A UC Riverside mandarin, King × Dancy lineage | Virtually none | Mar–early summer in Ojai | "Ojai Pixie" means a Pixie grown in the Ojai Valley |
| Cuties / Halos | Brand names, not varieties: clementines early, then W. Murcott and Tango | Sold as seedless | Nov–Apr (Cuties), Nov–May (Halos) | Brand names that stay the same while the fruit changes |
| Minneola tangelo | Not a pure mandarin: Duncan grapefruit × Dancy | Seedy when cross-pollinated | Jan–Mar at Riverside | USDA release, 1931 |
Sources for each row are linked in the sections below.
Is a tangerine a mandarin?
Yes. Every tangerine is a mandarin. The UC Riverside Citrus Variety Collection traces the word to a Florida tree known as the Moragne "tangierine", growing in Palatka by 1843 and said to have been brought from Tangier. A seedling of it, planted by Colonel G. L. Dancy at Orange Mills in 1867, became the Dancy, the classic American tangerine. In UC Riverside's words, the Tangier story "gave rise to the term 'tangerine' which today seems to refer to any mandarin, not just Dancy."
The collection files the fruit as "Dancy mandarin".
You'll often read that tangerines are larger and tarter than mandarins. As a rule that can't hold, since tangerines are one kind of mandarin. What's true is narrower. The Dancy has a deep orange-red rind, about 6 to 20 seeds and a sprightly, fairly acid flavor, according to its UC Riverside entry. The same entry notes that in California, good Dancy fruit grows only in the low desert. So a fruit sold as a tangerine in California today is often another mandarin, such as the Pixie, under the old name.
The name is worth keeping for the red-rinded, seedy Dancy type. Using it for every mandarin is how the confusion started.
What makes a clementine a clementine?
A clementine is a mandarin type that began as a chance seedling in the garden of an orphanage in Algeria. Dr. Trabut of Algeria's government experiment station selected it and named it after Brother Clement, per UC Riverside's Algerian clementine entry. When it reached California around 1914, growers called it the "Algerian tangerine", a detail that shows how loosely the word tangerine was already used.
Clementines are seedless only when pollen from other citrus stays away from the flowers. The most widely grown clementine in Spain, Nules, was found in Nules, Castellón, in 1953. It is listed as seedless. Yet UC Riverside's October 2003 samples of Nules from Coachella held 95 to 280 seeds per 10 fruit, an average of up to 28 seeds per clementine. At Riverside, clementines ripen October to December.
Clementines start the season in bags of Cuties and Halos. They don't fill the bag all year.
What are Cuties and Halos?
Cuties and Halos are brand names, not varieties. Each bag holds whichever mandarin is in season. The Cuties FAQ lists 3 varieties: clementines from November to January; Tango and W. Murcott from February to April. The Halos FAQ names the same 3 and says the California fruit comes from the San Joaquin Valley from November through May.
That means a bag of Cuties in March is not clementines. It's usually Tango or W. Murcott, both later-season mandarins.
UC Riverside made Tango by irradiating W. Murcott budwood to knock out seeds. Its variety entry records 0.04 to 0.2 seeds per fruit in trials across California, against 11.6 to 22.6 for W. Murcott. According to a January 2026 University of California report citing the California Department of Food and Agriculture, Tango covered nearly 20,000 acres in 2024, or 32% of all mandarin acreage in the state.
W. Murcott itself came to California from Morocco in 1985 and was released to nurseries in 1993. UC Riverside classes it as a tangor, a mandarin crossed with orange at some point in its history. The same entry notes that many scientists now call anything with mandarin-like fruit a mandarin.
Types of mandarins grown in California
Three more mandarins are grown widely in California.
Satsuma is a separate mandarin group from Japan, Citrus unshiu, named for Satsuma province in the south; Owari, the main variety, takes its name from another old province. UC Riverside describes Owari Satsuma as seedless and easy to peel, with a thin rind and mild flavor. Most of California harvests it in December and January. It doesn't hang well on the tree, so it has to be picked on time. Satsuma-type mandarins are also the main fruit in our Mandarin Marmalade, which we source from six small groves around Redlands.
Pixie was bred by H. B. Frost at UC Riverside from a 1927 open pollination of Kincy, a King × Dancy cross, and released in 1965 (UC Riverside). It is virtually seedless, with a yellow-orange rind and a mild, sweet flavor. In mild places it holds on the tree into summer. An "Ojai Pixie" is a Pixie grown in the Ojai Valley. The Ojai Pixie growers say the harvest begins in March and runs into early summer, and that "all tangerines are mandarins, but not all mandarins are tangerines." On their About page they put Ojai Pixies at under 1% of the California tangerine crop, sold under no brand name. Our Ojai Pixie Tangerine lip balm is named for this fruit and flavored with tangerine essential oil.
Gold Nugget is a late, seedless UC Riverside mandarin that holds on the tree into summer. UC Riverside measured its sugar at 15% Brix in March and 17.5% in May, so look for it late in spring, when most other mandarins are done.
For more on how these varieties reached the state, see specialty citrus in California.
Is a tangelo a mandarin?
Not quite. A tangelo is a mandarin crossed with a grapefruit. The Minneola tangelo is a Duncan grapefruit × Dancy cross released by the USDA in 1931. It has a pronounced neck, a red-orange rind and "a touch of its grapefruit parent's tartness", per UC Riverside. Its rind clings more than a Satsuma's, which UC Riverside describes as "not loose-skin".
How to tell them apart at the store
The label is the most reliable clue, and the month is the second. In California, a bag of small seedless mandarins from November to January is most likely clementines. From February on, it's usually Tango or W. Murcott. A Satsuma ripens in December and January in most of the state, and its thin rind turns loose and baggy as it ages. A yellow-orange, seedless fruit with a small neck in April or May is probably a Pixie.
Seeds help too. A mandarin with a dozen seeds is probably a Dancy, a cross-pollinated W. Murcott or a clementine grown near other citrus. A Tango should have almost none, which is the whole reason UC Riverside bred it.
Photo by Jonathan Pielmayer on Unsplash.
