Likely native to the Indian subcontinent, the common lemon spread through casual cultivation into the Orient. Sometime around 1500 AD, seeds were brought to the Caribbean and Florida by the Spanish.
In the latter half of the 18th century, the lemon was cultivated on a large scale in California. By 1870, to supply growing demand in the United States and avoid their importation from Sicily, Floridians revived commercial cultivation of the lemon.
Use was recorded in Greece by 300 BC. By 20 BC cultivators were noted in Italy. Evidence of the use of lemon has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii.
