Mexican Thornless, Spineless Mexican, Thornless Mexican (sec. Cottin 2002)
Citrus x aurantiifolia (Christm.) Swingle, pro sp. (sensu Mabberley 2004); Citrus aurantifolia (Christm.) Swingle [=Citrus x aurantiifolia (Christm.) Swingle, pro sp.] (sensu Swingle and Reece 1967, Hodgson 1967; sensu Tanaka sec. Cottin 2002)
The Chiefland Budwood Facility (2010) provided the following additional notes under Key Lime Thornless (clone F-59-39): Entered into program in 1962 from Coral Reef Nursery, Goulds, FL. W, Walker block. Seeds originated in Yuma Arizona and brought back by Burt Colburn. Originally SPB-214."
Crown compact or dense, not weeping. First year twig surface glabrous; second or third year twig surface striate; thorns absent or not persistent; prickles absent or not persistent. Petiole glabrous, length short, wings absent. Leaflets one, margin bluntly toothed, shade leaflet blades flat or weakly conduplicate, sun leaflet blades weakly conduplicate. Leaflets freshly lemon-like when crushed. Fruit broader than long or as broad as long or longer than broad, rind green-yellow (6), yellow (7-10) or yellow-orange (11), rind texture slightly rough (4-5), firmness leathery, navel absent, flesh yellow, taste sour.
Hodgson (1967) provided the following additional notes on the cultivar under the synonymous Thornless Key lime: "Thornless clones reported in the literature include: Doc Sans Epines (Doc Thornless) of Morocco; Yung, a form introduced into California from Morroco by George Yung about 1882 and described and named by Webber (1943); an introduction from Trinidad (West Indies) received by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1910, a limb sport which was found in the Ballard orchard near Weslaco, Texas, shortly after the freeze of 1925; and a selection recently made at Yuma, Arizona, by J. Hamilton of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. None has proved to have commercial value."
The Chiefland Budwood Facility (2010) provided the following notes under Key Lime Thornless (clone F-59-39): "Thornless selection of Key lime has less fruit set."
Bayer, R.J., D.J. Mabberley, C. Morton, C.H. Miller, I.K. Sharma, B.E. Pfeil, S. Rich, R. Hitchcock, and S. Sykes. 2009. A molecular phylogeny of the orange subfamily (Rutaceae: Aurantioideae) using nine cpDNA sequences. American Journal of Botany 96: 668–685.
Chiefland Budwood Facility. 2010. 2010 Annual report July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010. Bureau of Citrus Budwood Registration, Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, Winter Haven.
Cottin, R. 2002. Citrus of the World: A citrus directory. Version 2.0. France: SRA INRA-CIRAD.
Hodgson, R.W. 1967. Horticultural varieties of Citrus. In: Reuther, W., H.J. Webber, and L.D. Batchelor (eds.). The Citrus industry, rev. University of California Press. http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol1/Chapter4.html.
Mabberley, D.J. 2004. Citrus (Rutaceae): A review of recent advances in etymology, systematics and medical applications. Blumea 49: 481–498.
Swingle, W.T. and P.C. Reece. 1967. The botany of Citrus and its wild relatives. In: Reuther, W., H.J. Webber, and L.D. Batchelor (eds.). The Citrus industry. Ed. 2. Vol. I. University of California, Riverside. http://lib.ucr.edu/agnic/webber/Vol1/Chapter3.html.
Search for this cultivar in NPGS/GRIN1
Search for this cultivar in NCBI2 Entrez
Additional information on this cultivar at University of California: Riverside Citrus Variety Collection
1GRIN: Germplasm Resources Information Network; NPGS: National Plant Germplasm System
2NCBI: National Center for Biotechnology Information
Citrus ID Edition 2
October, 2011
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