Triphasia brassii is a rare species of Triphasia

Triphasia

Triphasia is a small genus of three species in the family Rutaceae, related to Citrus. The genus is native to southeastern Asia and New Guinea....

in the family Rutaceae

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

, native to New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

. All known specimens are from one general area. Triphasias are very close relatives of citrus.

It is a very spiny evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

 (rarely a small tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

) growing to 2 m (6.5 ft) tall. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are glossy dark green, each leaflet 2-4 (3/4 to 1 1/2 in) long and 1.5-2cm (3/4 to 1 in) wide. The flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are white and strongly scented. The kumquat

Kumquat

Cumquats or kumquats are a group of small fruit-bearing trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, either forming the genus Fortunella, or placed within Citrus sensu lato...

-sized 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,...

 is a red, edible hesperidium

Hesperidium

A hesperidium is a modified fruit with a tough, leathery rind. The peel contains volatile oil glands in pits. The fleshy interior is composed of separate sections, called carpels, filled with fluid-filled vesicles that are actually specialized hair cells.The outer ovary wall becomes the thick...

 resembling a small 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...

fruit. The fruit is larger than the somewhat better known limeberry

Triphasia trifolia

Triphasia trifolia is a species of Triphasia in the family Rutaceae, native to tropical southeastern Asia in Malaysia, the Philippines and possibly elsewhere...

. The fruit flesh is pulpy, with a flavor reminiscent of a slightly sweet lime.

Cultivation and uses

Like its close relative the limeberry, T. brassii may have some unexplored potential as a fruit crop. Thus far, however, this potential has been limited due to the absence of domesticated variants, the lack of close scientific study, and the extreme rarity of the plant.