With the citron and pomelo, it is the ancestor of the most commercially important hybrids (such as sweet and sour oranges, grapefruit, and many lemons and limes).

[7] The wild mandarin is one of the pure ancestral citrus taxa; they evolved in a restricted region of South China and Vietnam.

[9][10][6] Mandarins appear to have been domesticated at least twice, in the north and south Nanling Mountains, derived from separate wild subspecies.

The clusters display different patterns of pomelo introgression, have different deduced historical population histories, and are most closely related to distinct wild mandarins, suggesting two independent domestications in the north and south.

[12] All tested domesticated cultivars belong to one of these two genetic clusters, with varieties such as Nanfengmiju, Kishu and Satsuma from the northern domestication event producing larger, redder fruit, while varieties such as Willowleaf, Dancy, Sunki, Cleopatra, King, and Ponkan belong to the smaller, yellower-fruited southern cluster.

[13] Hodgson represented them as several subgroups: common (C. reticulata), Satsuma, King (C. nobilis), Mediterranean (willowleaf), small-fruited (C. indica, C. tachibana and C. reshni), and mandarin hybrids.

[15] Genetic analysis is consistent with continental mandarins representing a single species, varying due to hybridization.

Its hybridization with the mainland species has produced unique island cultivars in Japan and Taiwan, such as the Tachibana orange[11] the Shekwasha,[11] and Nanfengmiju.

[12] An 'acidic' group including Sunki and Cleopatra mandarins likewise contain small regions of introgressed pomelo DNA; they are too sour to eat, but are widely used as rootstock and grown for juice.

[8] Hybrid mandarins thus fall on a continuum of increasing pomelo contribution with clementines, sweet and sour oranges, and grapefruit.

[10][17][8] In 2022, world production of mandarin oranges (combined with tangerines, clementines, and satsumas in reporting to FAOSTAT) was 44.2 million tonnes, led by China with 61% of the global total.

Essential oil from the fresh peel may be used as a flavouring for candy, in gelatins, ice cream, chewing gum, and baked goods.

[3] In North America, mandarins are commonly purchased in 5- or 10-pound boxes,[5] individually wrapped in soft green paper, and given in Christmas stockings.

The tradition spread among the non-Japanese population and eastwards across the country: each November harvest, "The oranges were quickly unloaded and shipped east by rail.

[22] The delivery of the first batch of mandarin oranges from Japan in the port of Vancouver is greeted with a festival that combines Santa Claus and Japanese dancers[24]—young girls dressed in traditional kimono.

[28] Mandarin oranges are mentioned in Sinclair Ross' 1942 novel, As for Me and My House, and his 1939 short story, Cornet at Night.