Japanese name: スダチ（酢橘） Scientific name:Citrus sudachi
[Overview]
An evergreen tree cultivated as a fruit tree.
The branches usually have thorns.
The alternate leaves look simple, but they are reduced compound leaves, small and lanceolate.
They have linear winged petioles.
The flowers are white with 5 petals.
Many stamens are fused up to the middle of the filaments, forming a staminal tube.
The fruit is oblate, small at 30–50 g, and ripens to orange-yellow.
The rind of young fruit is tight and difficult to peel.
[History]
It has been cultivated in Tokushima since the Edo period, and old trees over 100 years old can be found throughout the prefecture.
It is said that sutachibana (su-tachibana, meaning vinegar citrus) changed into sudachi.
[Uses]
The fruit is harvested while still green, and its strongly sour, excellently flavored juice is used in cooking as a vinegar.
The rind is used as a condiment.
[Cultivation]
It is hardy, strongly cold-tolerant, and resistant to pests and diseases, so it can be grown relatively easily.
It is a food plant of the swallowtail butterfly.
