The lemon tree is picky. Sensitive to cold, it still relishes enough warmth, though less than other citrus. Not fond of too much rain, it still needs ample water. Once finding the conditions it likes, the lemon tree thrives.

Even though now granted independent species status as Citron limon, the lemon is still seen by some botanists as a hybrid, ancestors unknown. Others disagree, saying the lemon is the child of the lime and the citron. Even the tree's origins are in doubt-many say it came from India's lush Indus Valley millennia ago, but some still think it's a much newer plant, possibly springing up in Italy.

The ancient Greeks knew the lemon and wrote about it. The Romans depicted it on murals in the 4th c. AD and while they grew lemons at home, they also imported them from their North African colony of Libya.

The lemon's post Roman history follows that of the orange. Carried by the Moors to Spain, lemon groves flourished there along with oranges beginning in the 8th or 9th centuries. Columbus carried lemons on his journey to the West Indies in 1493 and they were grown along with oranges in Spanish colonial settings in North America.

Today lemons do well in California but reject the humidity of Florida. California supplies over 80% of all the lemons used in the United States, though Arizona grows some.

Lemons grow well along rain-free coastal areas---Sicily, for instance, supplies over 90% of all the lemons eaten in Italy. Southern France and Spain are lemon-growing areas, along with Israel, Greece and India.