Citrus

• Authority

  Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

• Family

  Rutaceae

• Scientific Name

  Citrus

• Description

  Genus Description - Shrubs or small trees, armed with solitary, axillary spines. Leaves alternate, unifoliolate, glabrous, with numerous translucent oil glands; petioles usually winged; stipules minute, early deciduous. Flowers fragrant, bisexual or functionally staminate, 4-5-merous, actinomorphic, solitary or in short axillary racemes; calyx cup-shaped, 4-5-lobed; corolla of free, imbricate, white, thickened, punctate petals; stamens numerous, the filaments free; nectary disk annular; ovary 10-14-locular, usually with 4 or more ovules per locule, the style stout, the stigma nearly globose. Fruit a many-chambered berry (hesperidium) with leathery skin and juicy sacs inside the locules; seeds several per carpel, angular to ellipsoid.

• Distribution

  An Old World genus with about 12 species, most of which are widely cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical regions.