What happened to my Lime tree?

[happyhermit]

I do not know too much about my Lime trees because they were planted by a previous owner. However, I have 2 of them. My tree in the front made lots of Limes this year. My tree in the backyard didn't make any Limes, however it produced one orange. An orange. Probably originating from the orange trees in some of my neighbor's yards. We live in Florida. I ate the orange, it was really very tasty. But what happened to all of the Limes? I don't get it. We did have some frost this year and I had some plants that died. But why would the lime tree still be able to produce an orange? Maybe someone can help me with this Lime tree. Thanks.

Need a garden Gnome? You know you do.

[symplastless]

Most likely planted too deep.

However, I have 2 of them. My tree in the front

I planted peach trees once and they produced apples?

[David Hare-Scott]

I would say the obvious answer is most likely correct. You don't have two lime trees.

David

[David E. Ross]

If the tree in back really was a lime, it might have been grafted to orange root stock. Then, if growth above the graft point died, only the root stock remained alive to produce new growth (oranges in this case). That is the second most likely explanation.

The first most likely explanation was suggested by Hare-Scott. You had only one lime tree. If your neighbors have orange trees, it's possible a seed from one of their fruits sprouted in your yard.

What definitely did not happen is that pollen from a neighbor's tree caused the lime tree to produce an orange. Even when there is cross-pollination, the fruit always reflects the plant on which it grows. The results of cross-pollination appear only in plants grown from the resulting seeds.