Bio Diversity Park

Common Name : Sweet Lime

Hindi Name : मोसम्बी | Scientific Name : Citrus medica
Family : Rutaceae
Uses : The fruits are made into marmalade, eaten in salads or are used in liqueurs. The thick rind of the fruit can be sliced and added to salads, or candied and used as a flavouring in cakes, puddings, confectionery etc. The fresh shoots, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds of citron have all entered into a number of traditional medicinal preparations for the treatment of asthma, arthritis, headache, stomach-ache, intestinal parasites and certain psychological disturbances. Decoctions of the roots are reportedly used to treat respiratory problems and backache. The fruits are used in the treatment of malaria, coughs and colds. The stem is used in febrifuge pills. Citron fruit has been used as a perfume and moth repellent.
Native: South East Asia
General Description:

It is an evergreen shrub or small trees up to 4m tall; branchlets are angular and purplish when young, glabrous, stout; axillary spins ca. 4cm long, straight. Leaves are simple, alternate, spiral; petioles ca. 0.5-1cm long, margined; lamina ca. 6-18 x 3-9cm, oblanceolate or obovate, obtuse or rounded at base, acute or rounded at apex, crenate-serrate at margin with white gland-dotted; secondary nerves 8-12 pairs. Inflorescences is in axillary racemes, few-flowered; Flowers ca. 1.5cm, white or pinkish, oblong in bud, bisexual and staminate; calyx urceolate, 4 or 5-lobed; lobes ca. 4mm long; petals are 5, ca. 2-4 x 1cm, pink or purplish abaxially, oblong or oblanceolate, glandular; stamens are 30-40 or more; filaments are polyadelphous, white, shortly pubescent; anthers ca. 5mm long, yellowish, linear; ovary ca. 8 x 4mm, 12-14-locular, cylindric; style ca. 15mm long, purplish, cylindric; stigma is pinkish, globose, sticky. Fruits are ca. 10-20 x 6-14cm, ovoid-oblong, ellipsoid or obovoid, yellowish, surface smooth, rough or warty on outer, obtuse or depressed at base, obtuse or mamillate at apex; rind very thick, strongly adherent, glandular, foveolate, aromatic; mesocarp whitish, hard; endocarp segments 10-12, with pale greenish acidic or sweetish pulp-vesicles. Seeds are numerous, ca. 10 x 5 mm, acute at base, smooth, white when cut.