Alemow - Citrus macrophylla

Scientific classification

Kingdom:        Plantae

(unranked):     Angiosperms

(unranked):     Eudicots

(unranked):     Rosids

Order: Sapindales

Family:            Rutaceae

Genus: Citrus

Species:           C. macrophylla

Binomial name           Citrus macrophylla

Citrus macrophylla, also known as alemow, is a citrus tree and fruit, belonging to the papeda subgroup of citrus plants.

The trees are short in stature, more tropical in nature than most citrus, and are very spiny.

Alemow is rare and poorly studied, a likely hybrid between the citron and biasong (C. micrantha). The large fruits are considered inedible by local populations, though the plants are infrequently cultivated for medicinal and other uses. It has been tried in California as a possible rootstock for other citrus.

Parentage/origins: Parents unknown.

Rootstocks of accession: Yuma Ponderosa lemon.

Season of ripeness at Riverside: Unknown at this time.

Fruit medium-large, oblong to obovate; often with prominent mammilla surrounded by circular furrow; seedy.  Rind medium-thick (for size of fruit); surface somewhat rough and bumpy; tightly adherent; color greenish-yellow.

Segments numerous (about 15); central axis large and solid.  Flesh color greenish-yellow; low in juice; strongly acid and bitter.  Seeds polyembryonic.

Tree vigorous, spreading, very thorny (with short stout spines); flowers and new growth strongly purple-tinted.  Leaves small to medium, pale green, narrow elliptical, blunt-pointed, and with broadly winged petioles of the pummelo type.

Lemon or lime characters in the alemow are discernible, and there is some suggestion of pummelo.  The writer has provisionally placed the alemow in this group, and it is included in this treatment because of its promise as a lemon rootstock in California where the soluble salt and boron content of the soils is unfavorably high for the commonly used rootstocks. Alemow is said to be native to the Island of Cebu, Philippine Islands."

Availability: Commercially available in California through the Citrus Clonal Protection Program.