Citrus micrantha

Citrus micrantha
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Rutaceae
Genus:	Citrus
Subgenus:	Papeda
Species:	C. micrantha
Binomial name
Citrus micrantha Wester
Synonyms
Citrus westeri Tanaka

Citrus westeri Tanaka

Citrus micrantha is a species of wild citrus of subgenus Papeda native to southern Philippines, particularly islands of Cebu and Bohol. Two varieties are recognized: small-flowered papeda (C. micrantha var. micrantha), locally known as biasong, and small-fruited papeda (C. micrantha var. microcarpa) or samuyao.

Citrus micrantha is thought to be one of the most primitive members of subgenus Papeda, which is the earliest branch of the Citrus genus. It is a progenitor species of lime. According to some sources, Citrus micrantha is likely a synonym of Citrus hystrix.

Citrus micrantha was first described in 1915 by Peter Jansen Wester, who worked for the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture at the time.

Wester collected ripe fruit specimens of biasong (small-flowered papeda, Citrus micrantha var. micrantha) on islands of Cebu, Bohol, Dumaguete, Negros, and in the Zamboanga and Misamis provinces in Mindanao. The fruits were collected throughout the year, indicating that the plant is ever-bearing. Biasong is characterized by small flowers (thus the "small-flowered" moniker) with fewer stamens than other papedas and oblong-obovate, few-loculed fruits. Inhabitants did not use the fruits for food, but for hair-washing, and it had little economic importance.

According to Wester's botanical description, biasong fruit aroma is similar to that of the samuyao. The tree reaches 7.5 to 9 meters in height. Leaves are 9–12 cm long, 2.7–4.0 cm wide, broadly elliptical to ovate, crenate, thin, with base rounded or broadly acute; apex acutely blunt pointed. Petioles are 3.5–6 cm long, broadly winged, up to 4 cm wide, with wings (phyllodes) sometimes larger than the leaf. Flowers are small, four-petaled, white with thin purple edge, 12–13 mm in diameter, forming cymes of two to five. There are 15–17 equal stamens. The ovary is obovoid, with 6–8 slender, distinct locules. Fruits are obovate to oblong-obovate, 5–7 cm long, with diameter of 3–4 cm, averaging 26 g in weight; their skin is rather thick, lemon-yellow, fairly smooth or with transverse corrugations; the pulp is juicy, grayish and acid, while juice cells are short and blunt to long, long, slender and pointed, sometimes containing a minute, greenish nucleus. They have numerous flat, pointed, reticulate seeds.

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Wikipedia