来檬 lai meng

Limonia ×aurantiifolia Christmann, Vollst. Pflanzensyst. 1: 618. 1777 ["aurantifolia"], pro sp.; Citrus ×acida Persoon; C. ×aurantiifolia subsp. murgetana Garcia Lidón et al.; C. ×aurantium Linnaeus subsp. aurantiifolia (Christmann) Guillaumin; C. ×aurantium var. proper Guillaumin; C. hystrix Candolle subsp. acida Engler; C. ×javanica Blume; C. ×lima Macfadyen; C. medica Linnaeus subf. aurantiifolia (Christmann) Hiroe.

Small trees. Branchlets numerous and irregular, with short stout spines. Leaves slightly stiff with a short, conspicuous petiole; leaf blade broadly ovate to elliptic, 5-8 × 2-4 cm, base rounded, margin crenulate, apex obtuse and sometimes mucronate. Inflorescences with ca. 7 flowers or rarely flowers solitary. Calyx cup-shaped; lobes 4 or 5. Petals (4 or)5, white, 1-1.2 cm, rather thick. Stamens 20-25. Ovary globose; style short, ± as long as stigma; stigma large. Fruit greenish yellow, globose, ellipsoid, or obovoid, usually 4-5 cm in diam., smooth, with prominent oil glands, apex with a papilla; pericarp thin; sarcocarp with 9-12 segments, very acidic. Seeds few, ovoid; seed coat smooth; cotyledons milky white. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Dec. 2n = 18, 27.

Trailsides; low elevations. Occasionally naturalized in Yunnan.

As a common name, lime covers a number of different Citrus species and hybrid species. Those referred to as C. ×aurantiifolia are hybrids involving C. medica and possibly C. hystrix.