What is this fruit please

[Old fruit]

My neighbor has a fruit tree and I have looked at all the sites I can on the internet to identify it.
The photos I took this morning should be of assistance.
Note the huge 50 mm spikes that I actually cut my hand on when I picked the sample.
Note the size of the fruit next to a normal sized Eureka lemon.
Note the lumpy skin.

I actually tried to eat one but they are very sour even though they look so ripe.

 

[YumYum]

Did your neighbor start a lemon tree from a seed? If so you will get some type of lemon but not a known variety. You may get a good tasting lemon or you may get a lemon just like you're seeing.

 

[Old fruit]

As a matter of fact she said that she did. Please elaborate on this for me. Are you saying that growing from a seed will germinate into some other variety? A hybrid?

 

[YumYum]

As a matter of fact she said that she did. Please elaborate on this for me. Are you saying that growing from a seed will germinate into some other variety? A hybrid?

Yes. Very likely.

If you want the same variety of something, then you have to propogate a cutting from that tree or graft it onto a rootstock. You may get a great tasting lemon from a seed, who knows it is by chance.

She may have a good rootstock to grow a know variety of lemon onto. I don't know. At this point it is worth a try. Lookup grafting techniques.

 

[Old fruit]

I have never heard of this. If I ever planted a broad bean seed I wouldn't expect to get broad beans with thorns or any other thing from anything I plant. Never heard of this in nature before.

 

[Owdboggy]

Apples are even worse for varying from seed. It is all to do with the number of species/varieties/forms that have gone into the production of the named plant. Broad beans in Old Fruit's example are just different forms of the same species so if you sow a bean you get a bean (not necessarily the exact same variety as the bean plant from which the seed came though). Plant genetics is a fascinating and sometimes very complex area of study.

 

[Old fruit]

I will ask my neighbour if she can tell me what it was that she ate and then threw the residue and seeds over the fence.
It is a freezing Saturday here and we can’t even go outside. Watch this space.
Please understand readers that I can’t just go to their door and inquire as to what she ate and threw over the fence without some sort of suspicion from her husband that I am not watching her every move.
When next they walk past with Daisy the dog on the way to the park, I will have my wife join me in greeting them and see if I can determine her culinary habits.

In the meantime I am conjuring up thoughts of “fruit from the Pharohs” as a progression to the seeds of today.

 

[Chuck]

I am sure this is a variety of lemon called Ponderosa lemon. Ponderosa lemons have bumpy lumpy skins, are very large lemons, have BIG thorns and are not sweet to begin with. Ponderosa lemons are a hybrid cross of a Pomelo and a Citron. If she grew the tree from seed then all bets of off as to what the outcome will be.

 

[Old fruit]

Well if what YumYum and Owdboggy says is true then the fruit could have developed from anything over many years.
When I think of the amount of development by agricultural scientists here in Western Australia on wheat species to develop drought resistance grains, then I guess all plants can be subjected to genetic engineering. This includes developing lemon trees without thorns and to make them sweeter.

I will still find out just what the neighbour lady was eating when she threw the seeds over the fence.
As those on the tree in the photos are virtually inedible, my aim is to find just what she ate that has morphed into this rough fruit.
I will add one thing. It appears related to a lemon as both it and the eureka lemon in my photo have the little knob synonymous with lemons.

 

[Old fruit]

Thank you Chuck. I am so disappointed to wake up this morning to find that no discourse had taken place.
I joined this forum to chat Internationally, not to experience long silences and boredom.
I think I will resign.
Goodbye all.
Old fruit.
Perth Australia

 

[Logan]

It's very unlikely for a lemon or a apple to fruit from a plant that was grown from seed. If it does it probably won't be any good and take a very long time to fruit, could be 10 years. But it looks like a lemon.

 

[Logan]

Thank you Chuck. I am so disappointed to wake up this morning to find that no discourse had taken place.
I joined this forum to chat Internationally, not to experience long silences and boredom.
I think I will resign.
Goodbye all.
Old fruit.
Perth Australia

You've got to understand of the time zones in other countries. Logan in the UK.