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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Rutaceae
Eremocitrus glauca

Citation: Swingle, J. Agric. Res. 2:86 (1914).

Synonymy: Triphasia glauca Lindley in T.L. Mitchell, J. Trop. Austral. 353 (1848); Atalantia glauca (Lindley)Benth. in Hook. f., Gen. Pl. 1:305 (1862).

Common name: Desert lime, limebush, wild lime, native cumquat, desert lemon.

Description:
Spiny shrubs or small trees; branchlets finely pubescent, glabrescent with age; leaves shortly petiolate, lamina narrow-obovate to spathulate, 10-50 mm x 4-12 mm, finely pubescent, grey-green or deep-green in colour and dotted with numerous oil glands; apex rounded to retuse.

Peduncle c. 2-3 mm long, pubescent; calyx lobes ovate, ciliate, 0.7-1.5 mm long; petals 4-6 mm long, obovate, white to greenish, with prominent oil glands; ovary c. 2 mm high, glabrous; style c. 2 mm long.

Fruit lemon-coloured when ripe, c. 15 mm diam.

Published illustration: Morley & Toelken (1983) Flowering plants in Australia, fig. 112.

Distribution:    Qld; N.S.W.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: Sept. — Dec.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Desert lime is usually restricted to heavy brown clays, desert loams or red earths, and usually occurs as small trees or as shrubs in dense thickets. The lemon-coloured fruits ripen in summer and are edible.

Author: Not yet available


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