A lemon tree can grow up to 10 meters (33 feet), but they are usually smaller. The branches are thorny, and form an open crown. The leaves are green, shiny and elliptical-acuminate. Flowers are white on the outside with a violet streaked interior and have a strong fragrance. On a lemon tree, flowers and ripe fruits can be found at the same time.
Lemon fruit are ovoid with a pointed tip at the end. When ripe, they have a bright yellow skin, a layer of pith underneath and a paler yellow segmented interior. Small Seeds commonly known as 'pips' are found within the fruit.
In food preparation
Both lemons and limes are regularly served as lemonade or limeade, its equivalent, or as a garnish for drinks such as iced tea or a soft drink, with a slice either inside or on the rim of the glass. Only lemons, however, are used in the Italian liqueur Limoncello. A wedge of lemon is also often used to add flavor to water.
Lemon juice is typically squeezed onto fish dishes; the acidic juice neutralizes the taste of amines in fish by converting them to nonvolatile ammonium salts.
In addition, lemon juice is widely used, along with other ingredients, when marinating meat before cooking: the acid provided by the juice partially hydrolyzes the tough collagen fibers in the meat (tenderize the meat). The juice, however, is not an effective antibiotic, as is commonly thought.
Lemon juice is also sprinkled on cut fruit, such as apples, to prevent oxidation which would otherwise rapidly darken the fruit, making it less appetizing. Some people like to eat lemons as fruit, however water should be consumed afterwards to wash the citric acid and sugar from the teeth, which might otherwise promote tooth decay and many other dental diseases. It can be used on its own or with oranges to make marmalade.
There is a belief in Ayurvedic medicine that a cup of hot water with lemon juice in it tonifies and purifies the liver.
Cultivation
Lemons grow in tropical and sub-tropical climates and cannot withstand frosts and very cold temperatures. Their favored temperature is between 15–30 °C (60–85 °F) and they need ample quantities of sunlight. They thrive in fertile, well drained soils, but are notable for tolerating very poor, infertile soil, such as sand. Lemons need plenty of water but should be allowed to dry out between waterings. Propagation is often by grafting as the stock is vulnerable to cankers and dry rot.
Lemons are grown commercially in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, and other Mediterranean countries, Argentina, India, Brazil and the United States. They can be grown as plants in the garden as well as in containers if they are pruned to keep a small form.
Several cultivated varieties of lemon have been produced. Some of the more common are Eureka, Lisbon, Fino and Verna. There are also some lemon hybrids including the Meyer lemon.
History
The lemon is a cultivated hybrid deriving from wild species such as the citron and mandarin. When and where this first occurred is not known. The citron, apparently the fruit described in Pliny's Natural History (XII, vii.15) as the malum medicum — the "medicinal fruit" — seems to have been the first citrus fruit known in the Mediterranean world. Depictions of citrus trees appear in Roman mosaics of North Africa, but the first unequivocal description of the lemon, is found in the early tenth-century Arabic treatise on farming by Qustus al-Rumi. At the end of the twelfth century, Ibn Jami’, personal physician to the Muslim leader Saladin, wrote a treatise on the lemon, after which it is mentioned with greater frequency in the Mediterranean. However, it is believed that the first lemons were originally cultivated in the hot, semi-arid Deccan Plateau in Central India.
The origin of the name "lemon" is through Persian (لیمو Limu), akin to the Sanskrit nimbuka. They were cultivated in Genoa in the mid-fifteenth century, and appeared in the Azores in 1494. More recent research has identified lemons in the ruins of Pompeii. Lemons were once used by the British Royal navy to combat scurvy, as they provided a large amount of vitamin C.
|
