LEMONS are a staple fruit for many cuisines around the world. The fruit's distinct mouth-puckering sour yet sweet taste is a must for many dishes and deserts.
Almost the entire fruit is used, from its juice to its peel. Even the leaves are used to make a special tea and for preparing cooked meats and seafood.
As useful a fruit as it is, apparently the humble lemon isn't entirely natural; in fact, you could even call it man-made.
Is this true?
Verdict:
TRUE
Yes the lemon tree is not natural, in the sense that it does not occur naturally in the wild.
There are no natural lemon tree groves or forests anywhere. Every single lemon on the planet more or less came from a farm.
You see, the lemon is actually a hybrid.
Studies have shown that the lemon is a cross between bitter orange (which itself is a hybrid of pomelos and mandarins) and citron.
Citron is one of the three granddaddies of most citrus fruits, the other two being mandarin oranges and pomelos.
From lemons to limes, oranges to grapefruits, almost all citrus fruits grown today are actually hybrids of these three fruits, though some studies suggest that papedas (an unpalatable citrus that grows in Asia) also contributed some of its genes to the mix.
Though not natural, the lemon has a very long history – long enough that its exact origins are unknown, though it is thought lemons were first grown in either Assam in India, northern Myanmar or southern China.
The first written record of the fruit in Europe was in Rome around the second century AD. From there, it spread to Persia and the Middle East around 700 AD.
As for Malaysia, seeing that citrus fruits originate from our neck of the woods (southern to south-eastern Asia) we've had lemons ever since there were lemons, though culturally we were more partial to their cousins, the limes.
References:
1. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110118101600.htm
2. https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lemon.html#Description
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304423804000317?via%3Dihub
4. https://citrusvariety.ucr.edu/crc2327
