The plant is a fairly cold-hardy citrus (USDA zone 6) and will tolerate moderate frost and snow, making a large shrub or small tree 4–8 m (13–26 ft) tall.

The cultivar 'Flying Dragon' is dwarfed in size, has highly twisted, contorted stems, and has even stronger thorns than the type.

[9] Recent studies have revealed that the trifoliate orange contains auraptene at a high concentration, which is one of the functional components having immunity against citrus tristeza virus (CTV).

[11] The fruits of the trifoliate orange are widely used in medical traditions of East Asia as a treatment for allergic inflammation.

[13] Early phylogenetic analysis of trifoliate orange plastids nested Poncirus within the citrus, consistent with a single genus,[14][15][16][17] but the sequencing of the nuclear genome by Wu, et al. showed its genome to be most divergent, different enough to justify retention of Poncirus as a separate genus.

[19] Ollitrault, Curk and Krueger indicate that the majority of data are consistent with the enlarged Citrus that includes the trifoliate orange, though they recognize that many botanists still follow Swingle.

In the Swingle system, where the trifoliate orange is placed in Poncirus, a hybrid genus name has been coined for these intra-generic crosses, "× Citroncirus".