Coachella Eremolemon

UCR lists Eremolemon (CRC 2439 / PI 539801) as a reported Eremocitrus glauca × Meyer lemon hybrid and records its receipt as a live plant from CPB to Indio in 1920. Home Citrus Growers recounts Swingle’s Meyer-lemon hypothesis but notes later editorial doubt; Hardy Citrus proposes grapefruit ancestry instead. The evidence does not resolve the pedigree.^{⁠[1]⁠[2]⁠[3]}

The 1967 description reproduced by UCR characterizes the fruit as yellowish, subglobose to slightly oblate, 18–25 mm wide, with five or six segments and usually one to three seeds. A Home Citrus Growers photo caption identifies Coachella fruit as 20 × 18 mm with five segments. In a separate video sample, a grower reports a largest fruit of 34 mm, more typical fruit around 25 mm, one seed in the cut fruit, and 8% Brix; the instrument display was not verified. The presenter describes the sample as lime-like, with a slight non-distracting off-flavor, juice, and lemon/lime-like scent. These are historical description, caption, and individual video observations, not a single shared measurement set.^{⁠[1]⁠[2]⁠[6]}

UCR lists Riverside flowering from February to April and ripening from April to November. The embedded historical account says vigorous plants flowered and fruited abundantly when 8–10 feet high; this is the account’s observation, not a universal size threshold. Hardy Citrus reports a Savannah plant surviving 13°F (about −11°C) with poor acclimation, but gives no exposure duration, rootstock, injury details, or accession link. A video grower describes a long-held grafted, thorny container plant that was hard to fruit but set fruit after improved care.^{⁠[1]⁠[3]⁠[5]}

The historical account describes seedlings as uniform, rapid-growing when young, receptive to Citrus buds, and having taproots like Citrus rootstocks. Its suggestion that nucellar-only embryos explain true-to-type seedlings is framed as “doubtless,” not a verified genetic result. Separately, UC ANR reports an HLB response score for Eremolemon material without identifying its accession; its Eremolemon inarches did not impart resistance/tolerance to Valencia scions in the reported trial. The UC ANR article does not establish that its experimental Eremolemon material was CRC 2439.^⁠[1]⁠[4]