Citrus amblycarpa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Citrus amblycarpa (Hassk.) Ochse

Family: Rutaceae

Synonyms

• Citrus limonellus Hassk. var. amblycarpa Hassk.,
• C. nobilis Lour. var. amblycarpa (Hassk.) Ochse & De Vries.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: jeruk limau (Java), jeruk limo (Java), jeruk sambal (Java)

Distribution

Exclusively known from cultivation in Java (Indonesia).

Uses

The juice of immature fruits is very fragrant and is used as a condiment to enhance the taste of several dishes (e.g. sambal, soto and bahmie). The leaves are also used as a condiment, e.g. to improve the taste of meat sauce as a substitute for the leaves of Citrus hystrix DC., but also to perfume washing water.

Observations

• Shrub or low tree, up to 7 m tall, with almost spineless branches.
• Leaves alternate, unifoliolate; petiole 1 cm long; blade ovate-oblong to lanceolate, 4-8 cm × 2-4 cm, margin shallowly crenate, glabrous, densely pellucid dotted, fragrant when bruised.
• Flowers solitary in leaf axils or in a terminal 3-5-flowered raceme, white, 2 cm in diameter, fragrant; calyx 1 mm long, with 4-5 segments; petals 3-5, up to 1 cm long; stamens 16-20, forming a tube at base.
• Fruit a depressed globose berry, 1.5-3.5 cm in diameter, shiny dark green when immature, turning yellow-green at maturity, peel bullate, not very thin; pulp yellow-green, sour, fragrant.
• Seed long, pear-shaped, up to 1 cm × 0.5 cm.

C. amblycarpa is cultivated in Java from sea-level up to 350 m altitude. Flowering is in March-April. The fruits are on sale in most markets.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters‑Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963), 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965), 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968), 761 pp.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd edition, 3 volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp. (3rd edition, 1950. van Hoeve, 's‑Gravenhage/Bandung, the Netherlands/Indonesia. 1660 pp.).

• Ochse, J.J. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1980. Vegetables of the Dutch East Indies. 3rd English edition (translation of "Indische groenten”, 1931). Asher & Co., Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 1016 pp.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen