The ponderosa lemon is a citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 thought to be a hybrid of a lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

 and a citron

Citron

Not to be confused with Cintron.The citron is a fragrant citrus fruit, botanically classified as Citrus medica by both the Swingle and Tanaka systems...

. It is less cold hardy than a true lemon. It bears medium to large fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 that have a thick and bumpy rind

Peel (fruit)

Peel, also known as rind or skin, is the outer protective layer of a fruit or vegetable which could be peeled off. The rind is usually the botanical exocarp, but the term exocarp does also include the hard cases of nuts, which are not named peels since they are not peeled off by hand or peeler, but...

. The fruits are seedy, and while they look like a citron

Citron

Not to be confused with Cintron.The citron is a fragrant citrus fruit, botanically classified as Citrus medica by both the Swingle and Tanaka systems...

, they taste like a lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

. The ponderosa lemon originated in roughly 1887, and is believed to come from a chance seedling

Chance seedling

A chance seedling is a plant that is the product of unintentional breeding. It may be a genetically unique individual with desirable characteristics that is then intentionally bred. Plants that come from the artificial union of gametes from a maternal and paternal source are not chance...

 grown in Hagerstown, Maryland

Hagerstown, Maryland

Hagerstown is a city in northwestern Maryland, United States. It is the county seat of Washington County, and, by many definitions, the largest city in a region known as Western Maryland. The population of Hagerstown city proper at the 2010 census was 39,662, and the population of the...

. It was later named and introduced to the nursery trade in 1900.

Description

Ponderosa lemon trees are slow growing but reach a height of 12 to 24 feet at maturity. The leaves are long, evergreen, glossy, and citron-like, being ovate elliptic in shape and lemon scented. They have medium thick branches, that have many spines. New growth is purple tinged, as are the flowers. Ponderosa lemon also has larger than average citrus flowers, and bears fruit throughout the year. When grown as an ornamental, pruning is required to control the shape, and may be trained as a bush or tree.

Uses

Ponderosa lemon is not widely grown commercially, but it is commonly grown as an ornamental plant

Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...

. In areas where the winter's cold may damage the plant, they are grown in containers. In such cases they are usually grafted

Grafting

Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby tissues from one plant are inserted into those of another so that the two sets of vascular tissues may join together. This vascular joining is called inosculation...

 to dwarf rootstock

Rootstock

A rootstock is a plant, and sometimes just the stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, used for grafting a cutting or budding from another plant. The tree part being grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion...

s to help maintain a smaller, more manageable size. The impressive sized fruits may be left on the tree for many months after they've ripened without a drop in the fruits' quality. In addition, Ponderosa lemon trees can flower and bear fruit at the same time, further adding to the visual appeal.

While the fruit are larger than that of a normal lemon, they have the same flavor and acidity. As such, the fruit can be used in place of true lemons. There is enough juice for several lemon pies in just one large Ponderosa lemon, and they can replace lemons measure for measure in recipes.