Meyer Lemon

Frank N. Meyer’s discovery

Frank N. Meyer was an agricultural explorer hired by the USDA to scout plant specimens in Asia. In Beijing in 1908 he found a distinctive lemon variety with smooth, thin skin and unusually sweet, fragrant flavour, growing in gardens and as an ornamental container plant. He sent cuttings back to California, where the plant was named after him.

The hybrid revelation

For decades, the Meyer lemon was simply considered an unusual lemon variety. In the 1990s, genetic research revealed it to be a hybrid between a lemon (Citrus limon) and a sweet orange or mandarin (Citrus reticulata or C. sinensis). This explains its orange-tinted colour, floral fragrance, and reduced bitterness — characteristics inherited from the mandarin parent.

California reinvention

Meyer lemons remained a home garden curiosity for decades until Chef Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley began featuring them in the 1980s, celebrating seasonal California produce. Her advocacy brought the Meyer lemon to the attention of American food professionals and food media. From the 1990s onwards, Meyer lemons became a prestige ingredient in American fine dining and artisan food products.

Improved vs. original

The original Meyer lemon trees imported by Frank Meyer carried the Citrus tristeza virus, which infected other citrus. California mandated the destruction of affected trees in the 1940s. The disease-resistant “Improved Meyer Lemon” was developed by Don Dillon at the University of California, Riverside, and is now the only variety legally sold commercially in California.