What does a lime tree looks like? A lime tree does look like its cousin the lemon however, there are some distinctions. How can you ID a lime tree?
All citrus fruits have common ancestry in only three species, the citron, mandarin, and pomelo, which explains all the similarities that citrus trees share. With time through natural interspecific hybridization, all the other citrus trees we know and love began to emerge.
Lime trees are not very different from the other citrus fruit trees. Maybe that is why it is challenging to distinguish limes from other citrus trees.
But if you look closely and know what to look for, limes are different in some ways to their cousins, the lemons, oranges, mandarins, and tangerines, to mention but a few.
The question still remains, what does a lime tree look like? Read on to discover how a lime tree looks like. In addition, how you can distinguish limes from other citrus plants easily too.
What a limes?
Limes are green, yellow citrus fruits rich in Vitamin C with a distinctive acid taste. Lime trees are shrubby trees that grow to heights anywhere between 6.5ft and13ft and have evergreen leaves.
Did you know that people called British sailors ‘limeys’ because doctors often gave them lime juice to cure their scurvy?
Limes originated from Malaysia and Southeast Asia. All lime trees are hybrids of the original key lime with other citrus fruits.
Limes are, therefore, hybrids of hybrids, which makes it challenging to group them taxonomically.
How do I identify a lime tree? What does it look like?
You can identify lime trees by looking at different parts of the tree. There are some features that only line trees have, which are specific to lime trees and limes only.
Read on for an in-depth analysis of how the different features of a lime tree look like.
What the fruits of a lime tree look like
The fruits of a lime tree are the distinctive feature of limes between other citrus fruits.
- The fruits are green in color, and in some species, when fruits ripen, they become yellow or pale green.
- They are small, and the orphan 3 to 6 cm in diameter is about 1.2 to 2.4 inches.
- The fruits of the lime tree have a distinctive acid sour taste.
- When you scar the zest of lime, you get a distinctive lime smell close to the lemon smell but not quite.
What the flowers of a lime tree look like
Lime tree flowers are often white blossoms.
- The blossoms of lime trees could have a mild purple coloration.
- The flowers of a lime tree grow in clusters near the ends of branches.
- Sometimes after grafting due to hormonal stress, a young lime tree might flower. It doesn’t mean that the plant is blossoming so, such flowers on baby limes should be pruned.
What the leaves of a lime tree look like
The leaves of lime tree are small and evergreen.
- They are greener on the top surface pale green on the undersurface of the leaf.
- The leaves are often at most 2.5 inches in length.
- Lime tree leaves are oblong and have a rough surface.
Any change in the lime leaves can indicate a lack of nutrition, pest infestation, or disease.
- Curling of lime tree leaves is an early sign of wilting and can indicate that the soil lacks water.
- If the leaves of a lime tree turn yellow, it may indicate that the soil lacks nitrogen, iron, or magnesium.
Yellow leaves could also be an indication that the soil drainage is poor.
- Black lesions in the leaf petiole and premature drop of leaves could indicate infestation by the bacterial blast.
Lime tree branches
Lime trees have thin branches and needle-like thorny spines.
- Healthy branches of a lime tree attach at 45°-60° angles to the main trunk.
- Healthy branches attach radially to the tree trunk of the lime tree so that no branches are above each other.
- Unhealthy branches, also called water sprouts grow vertically from the tree trunk and sometimes crisscross.
If a farmer notices any water sprouts growing on a lime tree, the farmer is better off pruning them earlier.
Water sprouts are weak and are bound to break sooner than later. The Tangled and crisscrossed branches may scrape off the tree trunk’s bark as the wind blows, which may expose the tree to disease and pest infestation.
- Suckers are special branches that often occur at the base of the lime tree trunk.
Often, the lime tree trunk base is of the rootstock, which is not the desirable variety you are growing.
Besides, branches that grow too close to the ground will not produce healthy fruit and could be a channel for ground pests to climb onto and infest the tree’s upper more productive part.
As with water sprouts, a farmer should prune suckers off as soon as they grow.
The lime tree trunk and bark
Most lime trees that gardeners grow are grafted on hardy and dwarf rootstock. As a result, the trunks of the lime trees we commonly see are dwarfed.
- The main stem of a lime tree often has a 4-8 inches diameter.
- A healthy trunk of a lime tree often has vertically ridged bark. Problems arise when the bark of a lime tree is splitting.
When the bark of a lime tree is splitting, it is indicative of an array of diseases like scale, root rot, and sometimes gummosis.
Farmer’s will often paint lime tree trunks with whitewash post pruning to avoid sunburn. So, don’t be shocked if you see lime tree trunks that look white. It is just whitewash.
Unless, of course, the lime tree is infested with snow scale.
Lime tree roots
Only a handful of people ever see the roots of a lime tree, but if you’re ever lucky enough to see the roots of a lime tree, you would see that;
- The majority of the root system is made of woody secondary roots.
- The secondary fibrous horizontal roots have hairy feeder roots branching off of them.
- There is a deep thick anchoring taproot from which the entire root system stems.
It is very unlikely that you will see the roots of a mature lime tree in your lifetime.
How do you know if it’s a lemon or lime tree? (Lemon Vs. Lime)
Limes and lemons are closely related, and as such, they should have very many similar characteristics. No wonder many newbie gardeners may find it hard to tell lime and lemon trees apart.
1. Both lime and lemon trees could have thorns.
2. Baby lemon fruits could look like limes.
3. Both limes and lemons have that fresh citrusy smell.
4. Their leaves are both oblong.
Looking at limes and lemons, they look so similar that you might think they are the same plant with different names.
But are they the same? Listed below are the most common differences between lime and lemon trees.
1. Lime trees are shorter than lemons.
Lemons are generally larger than limes. Citrus limes often grow to a height between 6.5 to 13 ft tall, but lemons often grow to a height of 10 to 20 ft tall.
2. Look at the leaves
Lemon leaves are often larger than lime leaves. Lemon leaves could be anywhere between 4 to 6 inches long while lime leaves go beyond 3 inches.
If you tear a lemon leaf, you get a very mild citrusy scent while a lime leaf when torn gives a very strong lime scent.
3. Look at the flowers.
If you’re lucky and the trees you are comparing have blossomed, look at the flowers. Lemon flowers often grow singles and pairs, while lime trees grow in clusters.
If you see one or two flowers at the end of the branch, that’s most probably a lemon if, on the other hand, they’re a bunch of flowers borne together at the same point at the end of the branch, the chances are that it’s a lime plant.
4. Look at the fruits.
Lemons tend are pointed on both ends of the fruits like a rugby ball while limes are round like a soccer ball.
Also, the skin of a lemon fruit is thick, while the fruit of lime is thin.
Unless you have a Kaffir lime, most lime fruits have smooth skin, and lemon fruits tend to have bumpy skin.
On the whole, lemons and limes are very similar, and to the untrained eye can look the same. You will tell whether the plant you have is a lime or lemon with utmost certainty with the differences above.
How to tell a lime from an orange (Lime Vs. Orange)
Limes and oranges and limes are different. Right? We all know that limes are sour, while oranges are often sweet.
What happens when you have sweet lime? How then can you differentiate the lime from the orange?
Most varieties of oranges are acidic unless that particular variety is acidless. Sweet limes, on the other hand, have no acid altogether.
It means that you cannot always use taste as a standard differentiating feature.
How then did you differentiate the two?
1. The crop cycle
Sweet limes fruit all year round why do oranges are a seasonal fruit.
2. The color
Limes are green even when they’re ripe while oranges are orange when they are ripe.
3. Tree size
The leaves stem many of the lime and orange trees’ features or less the same, but one major difference is the tree size.
I know that grafted trees are often dwarfed, but the size of a natural lime tree is an average of 20 feet, while orange can go even up to 25 feet.
Therefore, even when grafted, the orange tree will be significantly larger than the lime tree.
The features listed above are the most definitive descriptive differences between limes and oranges excluding traditional differences like acid content which makes limes on average sourer than oranges.
How the most common lime species look like
The most common limes are the Key lime, Kaffir lime, and the Bearss lime. Read on for an in-depth description of the common limes listed above.
Key limes
Key limes are also called Mexican lime, West Indie Lime, and Bartender’s lime.
The Key lime is a thorny shrubby tree that grows up to 5 m (16 ft). There are dwarf varieties of the Key lime that exist and can be grown indoors during winter months and colder climates.
The Key lime tree trunk rarely grows straight and has many branches that attach far down on the trunk.
The leaves of the Key lime are ovate and often 25–90 mm (1–3 1⁄2 in) long. They resemble orange leaves, which explains the scientific name, which loosely translates to looks like oranges.
The Key lime tree flowers are 25 mm (1 in) in diameter, are yellowish-white with a light purple tinge on the margins.
The fruit of the key lime is green and ripens to a pale green yellowish color.
Kaffir limes
Kaffir Limes, also known as Thai limes, is a thorny bush that naturally grows 2 to 11 meters (6 to 35 ft) tall but is often dwarfed in modern orchard farming.
The Kaffir leaves aromatic and distinctively shaped “double” leaves. The Kaffir leaves have the hourglass shape that many women would kill to have. The leaves are often used for garnishing.
The Kaffir lime fruit is rough-skinned and green and ripens to yellow. The Kaffir lime fruit is small and approximately 4 cm.
Bearss limes
The Bearss tree is thornless. Bearss limes are most commonly consumed globally.
The seedless fruit is about 6 cm (2.4 in) in diameter, often nippled ends, and is usually sold while green.
Bearss limes have a long shelf life in comparison to its cousin, the Key lime.
FAQs
A lime tree leaf is small and elliptical. The leaves are dark green on the upper leaf surface and paler on the bottom.
The leaves are often between 2.5-3 inches long and have a rough surface.
Grafted trees often bear fruit after 2-6 years of planting. Lime trees grown from seeds often take anywhere from 4 years to 10 years to bear fruit.
It means that on average, lime trees take 3-6 years to bear fruit.
Most lime trees often have thorns. Thorns are a defensive mechanism to protect the delicate baby lime trees from animals.
As lime trees grow and mature, some species lose their thorns while some other species retain them.
Conclusion
A lime tree is a citrus fruit tree, so it is expected that you will see citrusy features on your lime tree.
Limes are sensitive trees to cold and soil moisture changes, therefore, remember to keep your limes well-watered and sheltered from winter and you will have the best looking lime trees.