It has become apparent to me that the putative key lime I bought from Lowes last winter is actually some sort of limequat. I thought the thing looked a bit more spreading in form than my other two keys but the shape of the leaves and the immature fruit it had at the time looked right so I went with it.

Except that the fruit that was on it at the time I bought it later matured shaped rather differently. Now the fruit from the blossoms that opened since I bought it have matured and I'm convinced. They're rather large for key limes, about the size of somewhat oblongish golf balls and with a distinct neck to each one. Flavor is pretty well like key limes though, both green and mature. The Google image search on limequats I just ran shows fruit that look like what I have.

I know there is a Eustis, Lakeland and Tavares(?) limequat variety so how do I go about figuring out which one I have?

.....Alan.

Alan, Here is a link to old articles by W. T. Swingle and T. Ralph Robinson. They have some pretty good discriptions of three most popular limequats. If nothing else, the article makes good reading.

Ned

http://preserve.nal.usda.gov:8300/jag/v23/v23i4/230229/a230229.htm

Alan, Here are some good images Mike has at his website.

http://www.homecitrusgrowers.co.uk/citrusvarieties/uncommon1.html

Interesting original article, thanks for the link.
I'm surprised that it says Eustis and Tavares are difficult to distinguish. For me in England the Tavares is always a longer, more lemon-like shape and yellow when ripe. Eustis is rounder, paler yellow but often ripens with some greenish areas. As usual, this could be due to the very different climate from Florida. Or could my plants be incorrectly named? Does anyone else grow these who could also compare them?
The photos on that page of my web-site are getting a bit old - before digital cameras were cheap enough. I'll try and update them some time.
Mike (aka Citrange)

Hi All,
I know nothing of the differences between these three, only that I too thought that I had a Key Lime tree. Some nice folks explained my mis-understanding at the SE expo, for which I was grateful. That explains why a limequat seedling took 17 degree f. weather last year. I was bragging about how my "Key Lime" seedling was the hardiest in the world! I went to Central Florida(close to all of these towns) over Christmas and checked with a long time nurseryman who told me that his "Key Lime" was really a Lakeland. My fruits have a slight neck, slightly oblong, and very yellow when ripe. I am not sorry I bought my tree. It is extremely productive, and the fruit is excellent.
I highly recommend adding a limequat to your citrus collection. javascript:emoticon('')
Exclamation javascript:emoticon('')
Razz

From looking at the pictures in the links y'all gave here and the ones that I could find in a Google image search I'm almost convinced this thing is a Tavares limequat. Of all the images that are identified by specific variety only the Tavares has a neck on some of the fruit the way mine look. There seems to be some doubt as to whether the Tavares is a kumquat/key lime cross or a kumquat/lemon cross but this specimen that I have smells a lot like a key lime when cut.

I'm going to take a closer look at the fruit tonight as there are several ripe enough to harvest. I think I'll leave one to see if it goes completely yellow at full maturity. Usually I pick them about half yellow/green.

That century old article from Dr. Swingle was interesting. Now I really want a Eustis limequat that I can plant out in the yard. We generally hit 25 several times a winter and can expect to go to twenty every four or five years so a true key lime wouldn't survive, but it sounds like a Eustis would.

Some other interesting things in that article is the way the word "citrous" evolved to "citrus". They spelled it with the "o" throughout the article. Another was the apparently rampant citrus canker problem across the Gulf coast. I wasn't aware that we'd had such a problem with it in the past. I read an article several months ago that someone was developing a commercial Satsuma grove in the Florida panhandle again. Used to be a regular industry up there but it all died out decades ago for the most part. This seems to be one of the things Swingle was working on back then. I lived in Eustis, worked in Tavares, and have visited Lakeland many times but I don't think I've ever seen a limequat in any of those areas though I'm sure they've got them on the Florida Southern campus. Strange that's where they were all developed.

.....Alan.

Alan, do you still have the label from your limequat? I was able to track down the grower of my trees using a registration number on the labels. See this thread in which I coincidentally had the same task of identifying my own limequat.

Junglekeeper,

I believe the tag still is on the tree. I'll check tonight and if it is I'll record the number. How do I use the inspection number to determine who grew the tree?

From the size of the fruit (ate some more of them last night) I'm pretty sure it's either the Tavares or Lakeland and from the available photos I can find I'm leaning more towards Tavares.

.....Alan.

Alan, have a look at the thread you started on sourcing the Eustis limequat.

I may have overlooked an easier to method to identify the limequat varieties.

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/sundry_hybrids.html

'Eustis' (X C. floridana J. Ingram & H. E. Moore)–Mexican lime crossed with round kumquat; oval or round, 1 1/8 to 1 1/2 in (2.8-4 cm) wide; peel pale-yellow, smooth, glossy, with prominent oil glands, thin, edible; pulp light greenish in 6 to 9 segments, tender, juicy, very acid, with 5 to 12 small seeds. Of excellent quality, nearly everbearing but mainly in fall-to-winter. Tree has small spines and pure-white buds and flowers; prolific.

'Lakeland' (different seed from same hybrid parent)–oval, 1 1/4 to 2 1/4 in (4.5-7 cm) wide; peel bright-yellow, smooth, thin; pulp in 5 to 8 segments, pale-yellow, juicy, pleasantly acid, with 2 to 9 large seeds. Tree nearly spineless; flowers white with pink streaks.

'Tavares' (X C. Swinglei J. Ingram & H. E. Moore)–a Mexican lime X oval kumquat hybrid; obovate to oval, about 1 1/4 to 1 7/8 in (3.2-4.75 cm) wide; peel pale orange-yellow, smooth, thin, tender, edible; pulp buff-yellow, in 7 to 8 segments, juicy, very acid, with 6 to 11 large seeds. Tree vigorous with short spines and pink flower buds.

Tavares has pink flower buds, Eustis has all-white, Lakeland is pink streaked.

Mine is just now starting to form flower buds so when they get big enough I should know something.

.....Alan.