Patio Tree: How to ID species of citrus?

[Colorado]

My wife loves when I take her shopping at the garden center. This works out great for us, because I love taking her shopping at the garden center

Anyway, she has always wanted a lemon tree. I’ve been skeptical of our ability to keep one alive long term, but this spring I said what the hell, why not give it a shot. So we got a tree labeled as a lemon tree, and it spent all summer outside on the patio. Moved it inside to a sunny window when nighttime temps started dipping below 50F.

It seems happy enough, as it’s flowering and has one fruit!


However….the fruit doesn’t really look like a lemon. LOL! Looks more like an orange to me. I’ve done some research online and the leaves of most citrus all look pretty similar. I thought maybe one of you Nutters might know how to distinguish a lemon from an orange from a grapefruit, etc.

Here’s a couple pics of the leaves:



Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Kbazz]

My wife loves when I take her shopping at the garden center. This works out great for us, because I love taking her shopping at the garden center

Anyway, she has always wanted a lemon tree. I’ve been skeptical of our ability to keep one alive long term, but this spring I said what the hell, why not give it a shot. So we got a tree labeled as a lemon tree, and it spent all summer outside on the patio. Moved it inside to a sunny window when nighttime temps started dipping below 50F.

It seems happy enough, as it’s flowering and has one fruit!
View attachment 571673View attachment 571674

However….the fruit doesn’t really look like a lemon. LOL! Looks more like an orange to me. I’ve done some research online and the leaves of most citrus all look pretty similar. I thought maybe one of you Nutters might know how to distinguish a lemon from an orange from a grapefruit, etc.

Here’s a couple pics of the leaves:

View attachment 571675View attachment 571676

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

From my knowledge, Lemon trees have toothy edges on their leaves and are more elliptical in shape. Whereas an orange has rounded leaves with a deeper green and more gloss to it. Don’t know much about grapefruits though
Here’s a lemon from seed I’ve been growing. If you zoom in on the leaves you can see the “teeth”/rigid edges of the leaf

 

[Kbazz]

Everything in your pictures seems to show it’s a lemon similar to mine but the fruit it’s possible it could also be a pomelo. Dang… now I’m lost too

 

[MoriLZ]

Looks identical to my Meyer Lemon tree especially the blooms.

 

[Carol 83]

I've had lemon and orange trees. The fruit looks the same when they're small.

 

[nuttiest]

Most lemon have thorns, so if you have none it narrows it down. Citrus have a winged petiole portion of the leaf, and all are different so you can look into that when comparing photos.
Blossom and leaf smell are different too - if you crush a leaf you should be able to tell now, But the best is just waiting for your ripe fruit!

 

[Shibui]

All common commercial citrus are hybrids from just 3 original species so flowers and leaf shape is quite similar over the whole range of citrus.
The small raised neck on the fruit shown probably rules out most orange cultivars but is common in tangello and satsuma.
Hopefully it ripens up and will reveal the identity.

 

[PerryB]

I have both a Meyer Lemon and a Key Lime. Foliage, stems, lack of thorns are identical between the 2 trees.
When my Meyer Lemon first forms fruit, they are definitely rounder than one expects of a lemon but then they elongate some as the fruit matures.
Meyers are a hybrid between orange and lemon, and I'm betting that's what you have.

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

I've heard from botanists that citrus are the sluts of the plant world, in the sense that they can all hybridize with every citrus except finger lime.
So it could be anything and everything.