Citrus australasica

Fruit of Microcitrus australasica

Microcitrus australasica, also Australian Fingerlimette or finger -shaped Australian lime, finger lime, Fingerling, lime caviar, Lime Caviar, called Limepearls, is a species of the genus Microcitrus in the rue family ( Rutaceae ).

Description

Appearance, leaf and spines

Microcitrus australasica grows as a shrub or tree with growth heights of up to 6 meters. The young plants have more or less horizontally arranged, angular branches with very short internodes.

In germination, the cotyledons ( cotyledons ) remain in the ground and the first leaves are reduced to Cataphyllen. The leaves are arranged opposite one another. There is Heterophyllie and the leaf blades are always easy. The petiole is 1 to 3 mm long. On young plants, the egg-shaped leaves are shorter than the stiff, upright spikes. The single spike sits on the side of the bud and is up to 25 mm long. On older plants, the relatively small, relatively thick leaves are egg-shaped with a length of 1.5 to 4 cm and a width of 1.2 to 2.5 cm, wedge-shaped or nearly rhombic with very blunt or ausgerandetem upper end. In the Flora of New South Wales Online, the leaf blades with a length of 1 to 5 cm and a width of 3 to 25 mm as obovate to more or less rhombic corrugated with notched top and wedge-shaped base, and to the ends of the edge are described. The bare surfaces of leaves have many oil glands and therefore the leaves smell aromatic when crushed.

Flower

The flowers are on individually, with a length of 1 to 3 mm and relatively short flower stems. The relatively small, radial symmetry, hermaphrodite flowers are usually fünfzählig, but sometimes three - or fourfold. The sepals are about 1.5 mm long. The white petals are maintained at a length of 6 to 9 mm, concave and broadly rounded. There are 20 to 25 stamens present. The stamp is very short and thick. The ovary is five-to siebenkammerig with many ( 8 to 16 or even 20 ) ovules in each chamber.

Fruit and seeds

The fruit is at a length of usually 4 to 8 cm ( Swingle ), and 6.5 to 10 cm (Flora New South Wales line ) and a diameter of 15 to 25 mm ( Swingle ), or 1.5 to 2, 5 cm ( Flora of New South Wales online) long, slender and cylindrical- fusiform and often slightly curved, often with a blunt swelling is present at the base and at the top. The relatively thin fruit skin is green or yellow to pink- red. The fruits have only five to seven segments. The fruit pulp is green to pink- red. The pulp is made ​​up of loosely connected, almost spherical juice strands that contain acidic, pungent tasting juice. The fruits ripen in Australia from May to June.

The seeds are at a length of 5 to 6, or up to 7 mm, and generally flattened oval on one side and often have small trough configurations on the other side.

Occurrence

The area of ​​origin of Microcitrus australasica includes the subtropical rainforests of the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland in the western part of Australia.

Varieties

From the Australian Cultivar Registration Authority ( ACRA ) 7 varieties of Microcitrus australasica already registered:

  • ' Alstonville '
  • ' Blunobia Pink Crysta '
  • ' Byron Sunrise'
  • ' Durham' Emerald '
  • ' Jali Red'
  • ' Judy's Everbearing '
  • 'Pink Ice'

Two species which have not yet been registered:

  • ' Blunobia Red Blush'
  • ' Mia Rose '

Taxonomy

The first description was in 1858 by Ferdinand von Mueller under the name ( basionym ) Citrus australasica in Fragmenta Phytographiæ Australiae, 1, pp. 26 Citrus australasica F.Muell. was provided by Walter Tennyson Swingle in the Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences, Volume 5, page 572 in the genus Microcitrus 1915. Other synonyms are Citrus australasica sanguinea var FMBailey and Microcitrus australasica sanguinea var ( FMBailey ) Swingle.

Use

Microcitrus australasica is grown with multiple varieties.

The fruit is eaten raw or made ​​into jam. In the U.S. Microcitrus australasica tentatively used for breeding, and as a base for other citrus varieties.

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