Jeruk

This is the general word used in Java and Bali for all citrus fruits. In Sumatra and West Malaysia they are called limau, apparently from the Portuguese version of the Arabic word which also gave us our own ‘lemon’. Citrus trees seem to have evolved in the warm dry areas of Asia, where they developed the knack of storing water against long periods of drought, but all the varieties we know today are the result of hundreds of generations of selection and breeding. Although the citrus began in semi-desert places, many of its descendants grow well in wet tropical conditions, and in Indonesia we make full use of them. Five of the most important kinds are described below