If you remember back in 2020, I posted that unbeknownst to me my yard had a hidden crop planted by some now forgotten previous owner in the side yard. It was a pineapple. I found it in mid-summer and it was ripe, juicy, and delicious. The next year, nothing. Then in 2022, a new pineapple fruit was ready for harvest. I surmised, using just dumb logic, that the plant must yield fruit every two years, but this year despite my assumptions, there's so far not even a little bulb to indicate that there will be any pineapple to reap. So either it's not a consistent every other year or the plant is just not producing anymore.
But apparently, in the five years I've lived here, I've overlooked this nearby bush that I thought was just simply a green bush. Lo and behold, as I was walking past it this evening, something caught my eye. A little round green ball. "Could this be what it looks like?" Yep, it's a lime. I've got a lime bush. I never knew limes grew on a bush. I thought they grew on trees. Let me quickly look it up:
Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara), also known as “Lime Prickly-Ash”, is member of the Citrus Family (Rutaceae), and one of only limited number of species from the Citrus Family native to North America. Wild Lime specimens have been vouchered in most of the southern two-thirds of the state of Florida; from Marion county to Key West. They can also be found in Texas, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
Or is it Key Lime. Some sources online suggest that they are often planted as bushes and will spread like mine has if not tended like mine has not been.
Here it is sliced in half. I tasted it and it wasn't overly sour like I've tasted Key Limes to be, it just tasted like a regular lime. Maybe it is a Wild Lime. But I'm sure it was planted here as an ornamental many years ago.
Gee, Shamrock Inches is turning out to be a regular old plantation. With my tiny inconsistent crops though, I don't think I'll be needing any slaves.