RUTACEAE - - Citrus Family

Citrus trifoliata Linnaeus — Trifoliate Orange, Hardy Orange

Habitat:

Woodlands, thickets, bottomlands, and streambanks, especially in suburban areas; native of temperate China. Planted in our area as an ornamental, as a “living fence,” and also used as a grafting stock for citrus, C. trifoliata is a small tree or shrub that seems to be made up almost entirely of “thorns” (actually, stipular spines). The fruits closely resemble an orange, but are small (ca. 4 cm in diameter), densely pubescent, and sour. Citrus trifoliata is often placed in a separate genus, Poncirus, but differs very little from Citrus morphologically, has been shown to be phylogenetically nested within Citrus (Araújo, Queiroz, & Machado 2003), and thus seems best included in Citrus.

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].