Kumquat Small Fruit Bearing Tree 100 Seeds indoor/outdoor Kumquats is a small fruit-bearing tree in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, either forming the genus Fortunella, or placed within Citrus sensu lato. The kumquat tree is slow-growing, shrubby, compact, 8 to 15 ft (2.4-4.5 m) tall, the branches light-green and angled when young, thornless or with a few spines. The apparently simple leaves are alternate, lanceolate, 1 1/4 to 3 3/8 in (3.25-8.6 cm) long, finely toothed from the apex to the middle, dark-green, glossy above, lighter beneath. Sweetly fragrant, 5-parted, white flowers are borne singly or 1 to 4 together in the leaf axils. The fruit is oval-oblong or round, 5/8 to 1 1/2 in (1.6-4 cm) wide; peel is golden-yellow to reddish-orange, with large, conspicuous oil glands, fleshy, thick, tightly clinging, edible, the outer layer spicy, the inner layer sweet; the pulp is scant, in 3 to 6 segments, not very juicy, acid to subacid; contains small, pointed seeds or sometimes none; they are green within. Fresh kumquats, especially the 'Meiwa', can be eaten raw, whole. For preserving, they should be left until they lose some of their moisture and acquire richer flavor. The fruits are easily preserved whole in sugar sirup. Canned kumquats are exported from Taiwan and often served as dessert in Chinese restaurants. For candying, the fruits are soaked in hot water with baking soda, next day cut open and cooked briefly each day for 3 days in heavy sirup, then dried and sugared. Kumquats are excellent for making marmalade, either alone or half-and-half with calamondins. The fruit may be pickled by merely packing in jars of water, vinegar, and salt, partially sealing for 4 to 5 days, changing the brine, sealing and letting stand for 6 to 8 weeks. To make sweet pickles, halved fruits are boiled until tender, drained, boiled again in a mixture of corn sirup, vinegar, water and sugar, with added cloves and cinnamon, and then baked until the product is thick and transparent. Kumquat sauce is made by cooking chopped, seeded fruits with honey, orange juice, salt and butter.