Good morning everyone. I obtained this plant from an old workplace of mine about 1.5 years ago. It was uncared for and unloved and I noticed it was pretty dormant for the first 6-8 months that I had it. Since then it has sprouted additional stems and leaves. Now the only problem I face is - what the heck is it?? I have asked around and no one seems to know. I would love to know if I am caring for it properly, if it needs to be in a bigger pot, if it needs a stem support etc.... Any insight and advice would be muchly appreciated..... Cheers, JeLLo
Thank you, however I just googled 'Citrus Hystrix' and the images I found do not look like my plant. As I mentioned in my Subject line, this is a non-fllowering plant nor does it bear fruit. Everyone who reads my post - if you need additional pictures, I will be more than happy to post them :-) Thank you for your assistance. JeLLo
I agree Citrus hystrix, and you're not likely to ever see flowers or fruit on in indoors in low light conditions. Get it some sun and warm, humid conditions and it will at least green up. Always amazes me folks expect tropicals to look and grow like they're near the equator when they are closer to the poles! HTH chris
The leaves of a 'citrus hystrix' are very different from the leaves of my plant. I apologize if I come across as stubborn...I will post more pictures of my plant and a picutre of the citrus hystrix.... My leaves are not rubbery looking, they are fairly thin, not glossy, the leaf is made up of two parts - the outer leaf being near the size and shape of a bunny ear and the leaf closest to the stem is substantially smaller, in the shape of a heart even, with the bottom of the heart attaching itself to the stem..... The first picture is that of a citrus hystrix.... JeLLo
Id agree that your plant is a citrus. It looks very much like the leaves on the grapefruit plants that my mother used to grow. Those secondary leaves on each leaf are what make me think so. If i were you i'd post your pictures on the citrus forum and let those people have a looksee. If it is a grapefruit then it is likely that it never flowers indoors in your pot. there is some kind of leaf/node count that has to be reached by the plant before it is mature enough to flower. this almost never happens in a pot or indoors. Plant looks to be in decent health though.
Kaffir Lime, Citrus Hystrix. Would you like me to post some photos of mine for your comparison? ;-) Keep in mind that yours will show differences that are sometimes significant, as you're growing it indoors in Canada, and not outdoors in Indonesia.
OK, I try again: If Saltcedar says it's a Citrus hystrix, then IT IS A CITRUS HYSTRIX!!! Or if it's perchance not a Citrus hystrix yet, then IT WILL BE A CITRUS HYSTRIX!!! :)))
Absolutely that's Citrus hystrix. Looks like mine when they're sad. Again, bear in mind that mine are growing near the Equator in South America, and you have yours in Canada.
The leaf and leaf stem of kaffir lime are roughly equal in size which is not the case with the OP's plant. The stem is more rounded as opposed to tapered. It looks more like grapefruit but I can't say for sure that it is. It's a good guess though since the plant was found in an office where someone likely planted the seed after eating the fruit. So it more likely from a fruit that's commonly available and edible which makes it less likely to be kaffir lime. The latter's leaf also has a rather distinctive smell when broken or crushed.
Thanks so much everyone...I will look into the 'grapefruit' tree more... I wish mine grew flowers though....
I do not know Citrus hystrix, so I can't say on that, but the petiole wings are much larger than any of the 3 grapefruit varieties that I have.
Here are some more pictures of citrus leaves for comparison:Kaffir Lime Grapefruit Pummelo After a closer look at a rooted cutting of kaffir lime I noticed some of the leaves have a similar form. However the cutting is only about 2" tall and the young leaves are quite tiny - much, much smaller than the plant in question. The leaves on the mature tree does not have the same look. Also, the smell is quite apparent and pungent when I put my nose right up to the leaves. Does yours pass the smell test?
If somebody told me this was a common citrus like an orange or grapefruit seedling it wouldn't bowl me over, not a citrus specialist but nothing about it jumps out at me as being particularly unusual. And you'd think such a specimen obtained under such circumstances would be likely to have been started from seeds of a grocery store fruit, as many are.
Hi Junglekeeper, I took a whiff off the leaves, and I did not notice any smell....In addition, I checked out those photo's...and in my opinion, neither of them look like my plant leaves....hmmm...
Sometime do some checking on the shapes of the leaves of Ichang Lemon and Tahitian Pummelo (Sarawak) to see leaves that are so-called bi-leaf or as some people think of them as having a "winged" petiole. You may have to dig a little deeper online than simply finding the right photos of the leaves to match these plants by using Google Image Search as your main point of reference. I believe there were a couple of photos of the Ichang Lemon, certainly was a bi-leaf Citrus, that were once linked to in the UBC BG Citrus forum. Not sure if those links are still functional or not - haven't looked to see. Some of the Papeda's which can have the bi-leaf were sold years ago by a few mail order retailers as non edible ornamental Citrus. Jim
Ichang Lemon/Papeda Sarawak Tahitian PummeloHi, Jim. It doesn't look like either. Ichang leaves are pointed at the end and Sarawak petiole is too small.
These two links may be of more help. Click on the middle photo from this link and look at the two leaves in the lower left hand quadrant. The winged petioles are about right in size compared to my tree. The flared out petioles are not small in size by any means on my tree. Variety Data - VI 342 Tahitian Pummelo Ichang Papeda and Ichang Lemon can be and probably are two different plants. ichangensis_3931 Jim
