Limeberry | |
---|---|
Micromelum minutum fruit and foliage | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Sapindales |
Family: | Rutaceae |
Genus: | Micromelum |
Species: | M. minutum |
Binomial name | |
Micromelum minutum | |
Synonyms [1] | |
List
|
Micromelum minutum, commonly known as limeberry, dilminyin (east Arnhem Land). kimiar margibur (Murray Island), [2] tulibas tilos (Philippines), sesi (Indonesia) and samui (Thailand), [3] is a species of small tree or shrub in the citrus plant family Rutaceae. It occurs from India and Indochina to Australia. It has pinnate leaves with egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaflets, hairy, pale green or creamish, scented flowers arranged in large groups and yellow to orange or red, oval to spherical berries in dense clusters.
Micromelum minutum is a tree that typically grows to a height of 10–20 m (33–66 ft) but also flowers and forms fruit as a dense shrub. The leaves are up to 300 mm (12 in) long and pinnate with seven to fifteen egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaflets 30–120 mm (1.2–4.7 in) long and 15–60 mm (0.59–2.36 in) wide on a petiolule up to 5 mm (0.20 in) long. The flowers are borne in large, hairy, scented groups 130–200 mm (5.1–7.9 in) long, each flower on a pedicel up to 5 mm (0.20 in) long. The petals are pale green or creamish, 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) long and there are ten stamens that alternate in length. Flowering occurs all year and the fruit a yellow to orange or red, oval to spherical berry about 10 mm (0.39 in) long. [2] [3] [4] [5]
Limeberry was first formally described in 1786 by Georg Forster who gave it the name Limonia minuta and published the description in Florulae Insularum Australium Prodromus. [6] [7] In 1834, Wight and George Arnott Walker-Arnott changed the name to Micromelum minutum in their book Prodromus Florae Peninsulae Indiae Orientalis. [8]
Micromelum minutum grows as an understorey plant in rainforest, including dry rainforest and monsoon forest and from sea level to an altitude of 600 m (2,000 ft). It also occurs in sandstone gorges and on karst formations far inland. The species occurs in Malesia, New Caledonia, Fiji and northern Australia. In Australia it is found in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, in the northern part of the Northern Territory, and south from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. It was recorded in New South Wales prior to 1911. [2] [9] [10]
The larvae of some species of butterfly, including the orchard butterfly ( Papilio aegeus ) and canopus butterfly ( Papilio fuscus ) use this species as a food source. [4]
In Malesia and Indonesia, limeberry is used as medicine and the timber is used for construction. [2] [4]
Limonia acidissima is the only species within the monotypic genus Limonia. Common names for the species in English include wood-apple and elephant-apple. It is sometimes also called monkey fruit.
Murraya paniculata, commonly known as orange jasmine, orange jessamine, china box or mock orange, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Rutaceae and is native to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia. It has smooth bark, pinnate leaves with up to seven egg-shaped to elliptical leaflets, fragrant white or cream-coloured flowers and oval, orange-red berries containing hairy seeds.
Millettia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It consists of about 169 species of shrubs, lianas or trees, which are native to tropical and subtropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, southern China, Malesia, and New Guinea. Typical habitats include tropical rain forest and seasonally-dry lowland and upland forest and forest margins, woodland, thicket, wooded grassland, and secondary vegetation.
Melicope elleryana, commonly known as pink flowered doughwood, pink evodia, corkwood, or saruwa, is a species of rainforest shrub or tree in the family Rutaceae, and is native to New Guinea, parts of eastern Indonesia, the Solomon Islands and northern Australia. It has trifoliate leaves and pink to white, bisexual flowers arranged in panicles in leaf axils.
Celtis paniculata, commonly known as tripewood, silky keltis, silky celtis, native hackberry, native celtis, Investigator tree or whitewood, is a rainforest tree native to parts of Malesia, Melanesia and Australia.
Zanthoxylum brachyacanthum, known as thorny yellow-wood, satinwood, satin tree or scrub mulga, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It is a rainforest shrub or tree with thick, cone-shaped spines on the trunk and prickles on the branches, pinnate leaves, and male and female flowers arranged in panicles.
Microtis unifolia, commonly known as the common onion orchid, is a species of orchid occurring from south China to Japan, Malesia, and Australasia to the Southwest Pacific. It has a single green leaf and up to one hundred small green or yellowish-green flowers. A common, widespread orchid which is easily grown in pots and is sometimes a weed in plant nurseries.
Petrophile macrostachya is a species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with prickly, pinnate or lobed leaves, and oblong or cylindrical heads of glabrous yellow to cream-coloured flowers.
Flindersia collina, commonly known as broad-leaved leopard tree, leopard ash, bastard crow's ash or leatherwood, is a species of tree in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It usually has pinnate leaves with between three and seven elliptical to spatula-shaped leaves, panicles of white flowers and fruit studded with rough points.
Sarcomelicope simplicifolia, commonly known as bauerella, hard aspen or yellow-wood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to eastern Australia including Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. It is a shrub or small tree with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves arranged in opposite pairs, male or female flowers arranged in small groups in leaf axils and fruit an oval to spherical drupe.
Acronychia laevis, commonly known as hard aspen, glossy acronychia or northern white lilly pilly, is a species of shrub or small tree in the citrus family, and is endemic to eastern Australia. It has simple, elliptical to egg-shaped leaves, groups of creamy white flowers and fleshy, mitre-shaped to spherical fruit.
Isopogon asper is a species of plant in the family Proteaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a low shrub with crowded pinnate leaves and flattened spherical heads of glabrous pink flowers.
Zanthoxylum nitidum, commonly known as shiny-leaf prickly-ash, tez-mui or liang mian zhen, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae. It is a woody climber with prickles on the branchlets, thick, cone-shaped spines on the trunk and older branches, pinnate leaves with five to nine leaflets, and panicles or racemes of white to pale yellow, male or female flowers in leaf axils and on the ends of branchlets.
Micromelum is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Rutaceae.
Zanthoxylum pinnatum, commonly known as yellow wood, is a species of flowering plant of the family Rutaceae native to Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands. It is a tree with pinnate leaves, white male and female flowers arranged in groups in leaf axils, and spherical, purple follicles containing a single black seed.
Zanthoxylum rhetsa, commonly known as Indian prickly ash, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae and occurs from India east to the Philippines and south to northern Australia. It is a deciduous shrub or tree with cone-shaped spines on the stems, pinnate leaves with between nine and twenty-three leaflets, panicles of white or yellowish, male and female flowers, followed by spherical red, brown or black follicles.
Boronia minutipinna is a plant in the citrus family Rutaceae and is endemic to a small area in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. It is an erect shrub with many branches, hairy stems and leaves, pinnate leaves and white to pink, four-petalled flowers with the sepals longer and wider than the petals.
Melicope littoralis , commonly known as shade tree, is a species of shrub or small tree in the family Rutaceae and is endemic to Norfolk Island. It has trifoliate leaves and small white flowers borne in leaf axils in panicles of a few to many flowers.
Conostylis serrulata is a flowering plant in the family Haemodoraceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is a small perennial with yellow cream flowers and flat, green leaves.
Austrocallerya australis, commonly known as native wisteria, blunt wisteria or Samson's sinew in Australia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to north-eastern Australia, New Guinea and some Pacific Islands. It is a tall, woody climber with pinnate leaves, the leaflets oblong, elliptic or egg-shaped, and panicles of purple, pea-like flowers.