Key Lime

Key lime, also called Mexican or West Indian lime, likely arrived in the Caribbean and Florida with early Spanish colonization and became closely associated with regional South Florida cuisine, culminating in Key lime pie becoming the official state pie of Florida. The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 — one of the costliest hurricanes in US history when adjusted for wealth — destroyed the majority of South Florida's commercial Key lime groves; discouraged by rising land prices and the fear of future storms, growers largely replanted with the hardier, thicker-skinned, thornless, and easier-to-ship Persian lime rather than rebuilding Key lime production, and the crop never commercially recovered. Most "Key lime" flavoring sold in the US today, including for Key lime pie, actually comes from Persian-lime-grown-elsewhere or Mexican-grown fruit of the true Key lime variety rather than Florida-grown limes, and surviving Key lime trees are now found mainly in South Florida backyards rather than commercial groves.