Crossword Genius

Brown one amongst mottled green and orange fruit (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tangerine

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fruit' is the definition.
(I know that tangerine is a fruit)

'brown one amongst mottled green and orange' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'brown' could be 'tan' (tan is a kind of brown) and 'tan' is present in the answer.
'one' could be 'i' (Roman numeral) and 'i' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'green' is 'gerne' which is within the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tangerine that I've seen before include "shade" , "Orange-type fruit" , "Kind of orange" , "Taste" , "Variety of mandarin orange" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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