Pinky Lime

Kevin Jones of Alabama reports Pinky as an accidental bee-mediated Finger Lime/Key Lime cross. He says he sowed Key Lime seeds while Key Lime and Finger Lime plants stood nearby, then recognized some seedlings by their Finger-Lime-like leaves; he identifies Key Lime as the seed parent and Finger Lime as the pollen parent. This is the breeder’s account, not genetic verification, and the Finger Lime selection is unnamed.^⁠[5]⁠[3]

In an October 2018 forum post, Jones reported that a roughly three-year-old Finger Lime/Key Lime cross seedling had ripened its first fruit. He described that single fruit as about 1½ inches long, with elongated vesicles and no seed, while cautioning that one fruit may not represent the tree. The report dates first fruit, not the cross or selection.^⁠[1]

Jones describes Pinky’s fruit as having typical Finger Lime flavor and pink vesicles, with caviar more elongated and less round than his parent Finger Lime; he also says the vesicles separate. A separate very ripe fruit was described as sweeter and more tender than the parent fruit, a relative comparison rather than a sweetness score.^{⁠[2]⁠[4]⁠[1]}

Jones says the Finger Lime parent came from Four Winds and was sold simply as “Finger Lime,” with no cultivar name recorded. He later reported retaining Pinky alongside a similar white-fruited sibling after culling smaller-fruited seedlings. He described the plant at about 7 feet in a 5-gallon pot in 2019 and reported heavy seasonal bloom with periodic spurts in 2026; these are individual grower observations, not mature-size or flowering-rate standards.^⁠[2]⁠[6]