Plant · P-422

Calamondin

Citrus x microcarpa

Calamondin is a small evergreen citrus that arose as a hybrid between mandarin and kumquat, with no wild population of its own. The fruit has intensely acid flesh under a sweet peel and gets used raw, pickled, or squeezed into drinks, teas, marmalades and chutneys anywhere a recipe calls for lemon or lime. Unlike most citrus, which crop in a single window, it flowers and sets fruit almost year-round. It only tolerates a few degrees of frost, so anywhere winters freeze it has to be grown in a pot and carried indoors for the cold snap, which is also why it doubles as a houseplant grown as much for the look of its fruit as for eating it.