"Lemonquat is a chance hybrid found by Leslie Cude at Beeville, Texas. One tree budded on sour orange in 1942 was 8 feet tall with a 7-foot spread at 10 years of age. It is fairly open with flowering habits like the kumquat. Fruits are round to pyrifoem, ranging from 1 1/2 to 3 inches in diameter, and orange yellow when ripe. The interior of the fruit is lemon-like, has a pleasant acidity, and becomes sweeter in March and April. It is highly cold-resistant, and the remarkably uniform seedlings develop rapidly. Swingle considered this variety as a probable hybrid of Meyer lemon and kumquat." (Mortensen, 1954) "'Lemonquat' (TR 26) is a chance hybrid found at Beeville and tested at Crystal City, Texas...The 'lemonquat' has value for backyard culture in areas where standard lemons are injured by cold, since it has acid fruit, is cold-hardy, and blooms several times a year. It can be propagated as cuttings." (Olson and Sleeth, 1965)
"The fruit of this Lemonquat are very similar to those of Sunquat which suggests to us that this is another mandaquat (perhaps it has Clementine or Dancy tangerine as a parent). Circa 1981, Chapman suggested such a possibility and Mortensen agreed that the Rio Grande Valley Lemmonquat could also be a mandaquat." (Loeblich and Walden, 1993)
At the time of donation, Dr Loeblich reiterated his belief that this accession is probably a "mandaquat". Olson and Sleeth (1965) recommend as a rootstock 'Cleopatra' mandarin or calamondin. (RRK, 08/2007)