| Native Citrus The genera Microcitrus contains seven species of which five
species occur in the rainforest coastal region of northern New South Wales through to the
Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, while the other two species in this genera are found
across the Torres Strait in New Guinea. Microcitrus australasica is also found in
the wet/dry monsoon woodlands near Darwin in the Northern Territory, with no apparent
stands between its east coast locations. Most of the Microcitrus and Eremocitrus species
have very acidic fruits and probably make a reasonably tart marmalade. Their most useful
status has probably let to be fully explored and that is as rootstocks for tropical
varieties of citrus, not just in Australia. A related genera in the family Rutaceae, Paramignya
trimera , may be of particular interest to plant breeders in the future because it has
a liane habit. Imagine a climbing mardarin or lime!
Microcitrus australis , "Australian Round
Lime" or "Dooja" occurs naturally in the areas just outside the
rainforest canopy and although a slender tree, it can be found growing up to 18 metres
tall from Beenleigh and sporadically to Gympie in SE Qld. in and on the edge of lowland
rainforest. In an open aspect it develops a more compact multi-trunk habit. Its fruits are
rough skinned and globular, but quite edible when still green, even though they turn
yellow on the tree.
Microcitrus australasica , "Australian
Finger Lime", grows to an erect tree of 10 metres. The fruits are green and
cylindrical up to 50mm or 2" long and only about 20mm or 1" in diameter. They
have prominent thorns and set plenty of viable seed in their natural habitat from the
Clarence River NSW, north to Brisbane Qld. Both of the native limes, that is the
"Finger Lime" and the "Round Lime" have a slight taste of turpentine
according to W.D. Francis in his book "Australian rain-forest trees". The seed
is known to be slow to germinate and Nan & Hugh Nicholson claim that cuttings take
"many months to develop roots". I'm a southern gardener and I'm used to lots of
plants taking months to root... which is not a problem, so long as they eventually do!
Microcitrus garrowayae, "Mount White
Lime" also has an elongated pale yellow fruit with light green flesh, small thick
leaves and only occurs in the vine shrubs and thickets on Cape York Peninsula, in the far
north of Queensland (FNQ). "
Microcitrus inodora , "Russell River
Lime", is only found growing on the lowland rainforest plains between Bellenden
Kerr and the Russell River, FNQ. It makes a small tree to 4 metres and has shiny large
leaves with tiny pairs of spines on the stems, with flowers that are highly perfumed. The
fruits are oblong to 65mm and up to 30mm in diameter.
Microcitrus maideniana, "Australian Wild
Lime" rather similar to Microcitrus inodora, except that its fruits have a
sunken top to them. "Australian Wild
Lime" rather similar to Microcitrus inodora, except that its fruits have a
sunken top to them.
Eremocitrus glauca variously called
"Australian Desert Lime", "Desert Lemon", "Native Kumquat"
and "Limebush". It has a widespread occurrence on the rangeland interior of
NSW and southern Qld, as well as a totally disjunctive occurrence near Carrieton in SA.
The tree to 7 metres, suckers when disturbed and that is the easiest way of propagating
them, from root suckers. The fruits are rounded and up to 15mm in diameter and a pale
lemon colour when ripe. They set fruit infrequently in their South Australian habitat. variously called
"Australian Desert Lime", "Desert Lemon", "Native Kumquat"
and "Limebush". It has a widespread occurrence on the rangeland interior of
NSW and southern Qld, as well as a totally disjunctive occurrence near Carrieton in SA.
Paramignya trimera is not known in
cultivation and its 10mm round fruits would not give much joy as a fruit, but as a
rootstock or for hybridising it may be a windfall. It's a shrubby-looking liane or
twinning vine that only grows to about 2 metres and is found in the Kimberly in north west
WA through to the western regions of the NT's monsoon north as well as on the Indonesian
islands and in the southern Philippines. |
