....more photos of this rare species
All the pictures above are from Sayer Road, Darwin. Originals kindly sent to me by the Top End Native Plant Society.
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Citrus gracilis appears to me to be very clearly a member of the plant species Microcitrus, recently botanically re-classified and absorbed into the true Citrus family. The leaf and twig form is very similar to other Australian native citrus, especially Citrus glauca (Desert Lime) and Citrus australis (Round Lime).
page created 19 October 2004, edited 15th february 2009 & 12th November 2019
Long, linear leaves with a central ridge are similar to (micro)Citrus australis seedlings. Grey-green young twigs resemble Citrus glauca. It seems that, like C. australis, leaves become wider as the plant matures. Here are linear and more willow-like leaves.
A young tree growing amongst much plant debris and, right, a mature specimen.
More photos & information on this species still welcome!
Please email me!
A small sucker emerging from the side of a termite mound
This picture of a Citrus gracilis twig and flower is from Ben Stuckey, of the Northern Territory Herbarium.It was the first photograph of the flower I had seen.
Click on the picture for a larger, higher definition version.
And just to prove I'm not the only person interested in Citrus gracilis, these photos are from a researcher at Melbourne University. Paul Coats attempted to propagate the species from cuttings. These are just some of the 250 cuttings he potted using different hormone treatments. Nearly all died!
The information on this page is now rather old. For more recent photos start from
AUSTRALIA 2016 and CITRUS GRACILIS 2019
The information on this page is now rather old. For more recent photos start from
AUSTRALIA 2016 and CITRUS GRACILIS 2019