Persian Lime

Persian lime, also known as Bearss or Tahitian lime, bears fruit larger than Mexican lime, with a thin, smooth rind that turns light yellow at full maturity. UCR describes the generally seedless flesh as pale greenish-yellow, acidic, juicy and finely textured.^⁠[1]

UCR describes the trees as vigorous, spreading and nearly thornless. It reports white flowers without viable pollen and few functional ovules, identifies the lime as triploid, and says fruit is normally seedless although rare seeds occur.^⁠[1]

UCR’s reproduced account, citing Webber (1943), reports that the Bearss form of Tahiti/Persian lime appeared around 1895 on J. T. Bearss’s Porterville property, probably as a chance seedling. UCR says Lelong described and illustrated it in 1902 and Fancher Creek Nursery Company introduced and promoted it commercially in 1905.^⁠[1]

UCR recounts that Bearss and Tahiti limes were once considered distinct but similar, and that California comparisons later supported treating Bearss, Tahiti and Persian limes as one clone. The source notes disease complications in those trials; this is a reported comparison, not independent genetic confirmation.^⁠[1]

At Riverside, UCR lists fruit ripening from October through December. Its collection describes Persian lime as more cold-hardy than Mexican lime and suited to regions where lemons can be grown, without giving a measured temperature threshold.^⁠[1]

UCR’s notes for Bearss accession CRC 3772 record wood-pocket disorder, including its persistence after shoot-tip grafting and thermotherapy. These accession-specific records do not establish the status of every modern Persian lime selection.^⁠[1]

Marker-based research infers that Persian lime ancestry includes a lemon-group seed parent and Mexican lime as pollen parent. This group-level inference is not a test of the particular Bearss selection represented here and does not identify a named lemon cultivar.^⁠[5]

Grower videos describe seedless or nearly seedless Bearss/Persian lime fruit that is juicy, with a yellowing interior as it ripens. Individual tree reports include an extended Arizona season and twice-yearly cropping, while a single-fruit harvest tasting called its Bearss/Persian sample “very bitter.” These accounts concern particular trees and samples; they do not establish cultivar-wide seedlessness, taste scores, harvest timing, or a cold-hardiness threshold.^{⁠[6]⁠[7]⁠[9]⁠[10]}