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Citrus × aurantiifolia; photograph (c) Attila Oláh, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Attila Oláh, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-05-17

Citrus × aurantiifolia (Christm.) Swingle

Lime; Key lime; Egyptian lime; Indian lime

Rutaceae

A hybrid: C. hystrix × C. medica, the parents Kew's World Checklist states for it (WCVP, RBG Kew).

No habitat climate
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Citrus × aurantiifolia, photograph (c) Attila Oláh, some rights reserved (CC BY)Citrus × aurantiifolia, photograph (c) Elliot Greiner, some rights reserved (CC BY)Citrus × aurantiifolia, photograph Adriano Senna, CC BY-SA, via GBIFCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph Pradeep Vijay, CC BY-SA, via GBIFCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph Xavalex, CC BY-SA, via GBIFCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph aaravis, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 24 photographs ›

Summary

The Key lime, also known as West Indian lime, Mexican lime, or Egyptian lime (Citrus × aurantiifolia) is a type of lime. While it is treated as a species in botanical classification, it originated as a natural hybrid between Citrus micrantha (a wild papeda) and Citrus medica (citron).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Key lime", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Citrus

Citrus is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the family Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, such as citrons, mandarins, and pomelos. Many important citrus crops have been developed through extensive hybridization, including oranges, lemons, grapefruits, and limes, all of which have many cultivars.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Citrus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Native range not verified: no WCVP distribution with native status for this name, so records cannot be told from cultivation and no habitat climate is derived. 451 of the 833 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though they count for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

No native range: WCVP lists no region where it is native.
Openly licensed records, not tested against the stated range, framed on where they fall.
NativeWCVP lists no region where it is native; the regions it does list are named here. · introduced: Benin, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Gulf of Guinea Is., Chad, Ethiopia, Angola, Oman, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaya, Christmas I., Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Cook Is., Line Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Florida, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Galápagos · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedNo verified native range for this name: WCVP has no entry with native status, and a checklist that only reports presence cannot tell a wild record from a garden one. The map shows 674 openly licensed records of 833 untested against any range; no map marker or climate is derived from them, and no sheet is built from them. 451 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.

Photographs

Citrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 1did not loadCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 2did not loadCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 3did not loadCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 4did not loadCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 5did not loadCitrus × aurantiifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Attila Oláh, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Elliot Greiner, some rights reserved (CC BY); Adriano Senna, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Pradeep Vijay, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Xavalex, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; aaravis, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

Other Citrus 16 in the reference

Citrus × aurantium Citrus × aurantium Sour orange Photo: CC BY, Emily E.M.Citrus australasica Citrus australasica Rutaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, NadiatalentCitrus australis Citrus australis Rutaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Mark MarathonCitrus cavaleriei Citrus cavaleriei Ichang papeda Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. Stang Citrus × depressa Rutaceae Citrus garrawayae Citrus garrawayae Rutaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldCitrus glauca Citrus glauca Rutaceae Photo: Public domain, DaderotCitrus hystrix Citrus hystrix Kaffir lime Photo: CC BY, rjtizardCitrus inodora Citrus inodora Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, M. FaggCitrus japonica Citrus japonica Kumquat Photo: CC BY, YjCitrus × limon Citrus × limon Canton lemon Photo: CC BY, claireCitrus maxima Citrus maxima Shaddock Photo: CC BY, chiuluan all 17 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Citrus depressa var. voangasay; Citrus hystrix subsp. acida; Citrus limetta var. aromatica; Citrus madurensis var. voangasay; Citrus medica f. aurantiifolium and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Limonia acidissima Houtt. is an older name of this species, not Limonia acidissima, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
(Christm.) Swingle
Native to
not verified
Records
833 georeferenced · 674 open · range not tested

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry lists no native region, only 45 where it is introduced
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 41 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (35 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21native range not verified: no WCVP distribution with native status for this name, so records cannot be told from cultivation and no habitat climate is derived
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia's article Key lime, the English article of this species' Wikidata item (Q165354)
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 187 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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