Two Wild Meyer Lemon Trees in San Diego, California
3,184 views · Published 4 September 2012 · 3:50 · Indexed 26 September 2026
Channel: Melvin Wei · 2012 · Science & Technology
I saw these two Meyer lemon trees growing wild in the Lopez Canyon part of Los Penasquitos Canyon Preserve. The latin notation for this would be Citrus x meyeri; unlike a true species of tree, lemons are hybrids from East Asian citrons and sour oranges. This particular hybrid was brought over by Frank Nicholas Meyer, an agricultural explorer employed by the United States Department of Agriculture who collected samples on a trip to China in 1908. The Meyer lemon tree grows from 3-5 meters tall depending on growth conditions. These wild trees were about 3 meters tall. The hybrid was very popular in California in the 1940s until it was discovered that the Citrus tristeza virus was dormant in most of the clones being propagated. Many of the commercial trees were destroyed to save the citrus industry, but the Meyer lemon still exists in many Californian backyards. These trees probably propagated from the backyards of the houses sitting above the canyons.
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