Monday 19 September 2011

Missing Pips

Over the years I've cut up an awful lot of oranges and lemons and you can guarantee that you'll find at least one pip in each.

Over the last few years I've started cooking Mexican food quite a bit and this, in turn, has led me to cut up quite a few limes. I must have cut into at least a hundred or so limes and I'm yet to encounter a single pip. Do limes not have pips? I'd always assumed they were reproductively similar to oranges and lemons. Am I missing something obvious?
19 September 2011 at 22:03 , Graham Edwards said...

I have read that the limes you buy in supermarkets are a special seedless variety. Ordinary limes certainly do have pips. The seedless ones are propogated by grafting to another citrus plant, or by 'air-layering'.

25 September 2011 at 09:43 , Mark said...

Well that explains things then. Seems an awful lot of trouble to go to though just to avoid pips. We cope with them in lemons and oranges so I'm not sure why limes are treated differently.

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