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Melicoccus bijugatus
Also called Ginep Tree, Kenip Tree, Kinnup Tree, Honeyberry, Guinep, Genip
Spanish lime (Melicoccus bijugatus) is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family, grown across the tropics for its sweet, edible guinep fruits. It is a large tree, not a houseplant, and needs a warm, frost-free climate to fruit well.
Melicoccus bijugatus is a fruit-bearing tree in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native or naturalized across the New World tropics including South and Central America, and parts of the Caribbean. Its stone-bearing fruits, commonly called quenepa, kenèp or guinep, are edible. Other names for the fruits include limoncillo, Bajan ackee, chenet, Spanish lime, mamoncillo, and quenette (in the French Antilles).
Melicoccus bijugatus is native to northern South America and naturalised in coastal and dry forest in Central America, the Caribbean and parts of the Old World tropics. It is believed to have been introduced into the Caribbean in pre-Columbian times. This fruit, known as quenepa in Puerto Rico, grows particularly abundantly in the municipality of Ponce, and there is a yearly celebration in that municipality known as Festival Nacional de la Quenepa (National Genip Fruit Festival). The fruit ripens during the warm summer months.
The main use of the limoncello is its sweet fruits, which are consumed fresh or canned, and can also be used in the preparation of soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. It can produce a strong yellow dye, although it is rarely used for this purpose.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Melicoccus bijugatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
