Citrus australasica

Citrus fruit

Citrus australasica, the Australian finger lime or caviar lime, is a thorny understorey shrub or small tree of lowland subtropical rainforest and rainforest in the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia. It has edible fruits which are under development as a commercially sold crop.

The plant is in height. The leaves are small, long and wide, glabrous, with a notched tip and crenate towards the apex. Flowers are white with petals long. The fruit is cylindrical, long, sometimes slightly curved, coming in different colours, including pink and green. and retained the trees when clearing for agriculture. Colonial botanists suggested that they should be cultivated, due to the lack of citrus alternatives. which can be used as a garnish or added to various recipes. The fresh vesicles have the effect of a burst of effervescent tangy flavour as they are chewed. The fruit juice is acidic and similar to that of a lime. Marmalade and pickles are also made from finger lime. Finger lime peel can be dried and used as a flavouring spice. The CSIRO has also developed several Citrus hybrids by crossing the finger lime with standard Citrus species. These hybrids have created many cultivars which generate finger limes in many different colors ranging from light pink to deep blue green. Finger lime is thought to have the widest range of color variation within any Citrus species. The color of the pulp (juice vesicles) comes in shades of green or pink including pale lime green, pale pink, coral, and scarlet.

Historically the finger lime was viewed as a member of the genus Citrus. The Swingle system of taxonomy instead divided the historical true citrus into seven genera, placing the finger lime along with the round lime in a novel genus, Microcitrus.