According to this info, 'Lemon Lime' isn't a patented cultivar.
http://www.google.com/patents/...
"In comparison with the well-known Dracaena cultivar ‘Lemon Lime’ (unpatented). ‘Lemon Surprise’ has shorter leaves, by 6 inches, with a more curly leaf-edge. ‘Lemon Surprise’ grows more compact than ‘Lemon Lime’. ‘Lemon Surprise’ grows less compact than ‘Surprise’. ‘Surprise’ has a wider white margin and the edge-margin is smaller than ‘Lemon Surprise’."

I thought a cultivar exists because it has a patent, but that paragraph implies that's not necessarily so. Maybe it existed before the patenting of plants? Appreciate any schoolin' anyone could share on non-patented cultivars.

No wonder I've gone cross-eyed before trying to figure out the difference between these two, and I think I've moved my pics a couple times, waffling back'n'forth on the ID of my plant, now really confused. Would it follow convention of this database to merge the entries & add a "sold as" name of 'Lemon Lime?' (The answer to that probably depends on the non-patented cultivar thing.)

If not, do folks think my pics are currently in the right place? The leaves are pretty long. Should I measure? All of my pics in that entry are of a single specimen, that has been propagated in the time I've had it.

Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans 'Lemon Surprise')
Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans 'Lemon Lime')

TIA for any info!

Cultivars do not have to be patented. You may be confusing cultivar names with trade names. Patented plants often have trade names, which are distinct from their cultivar names. It's clear from the paragraph you cite that these are two different plants.

TY. The paragraph says both names are cultivars.

This place claims to have pics of both, which look more different than just leaf length and compactness, showing a yellow edge. vs. a lime-colored edge, though that's not mentioned in the patent description. Hard to compare since the plants aren't in the same pic together.
http://www.plantinterscapes.co...
http://www.plantinterscapes.co...

This pic:

shows a plant that looks a single individual, for which the light level has changed, and now has leaves that look like both plants. I've observed the same thing on mine over the yrs.

EA only sells 'Lemon Lime,' my plant came from there, so I guess the pics are in the right place. I'm giving up trying to tell them apart, until I can find the other plant to buy. Then the difference in at least the leaf length and compactness should be obvious.

At one time I had both of these ... I went through my photos and found a couple showing how different they looked. I don't remember where I got them so who knows if the names/labels were correct but this is how they were tagged:

'Dracaena fragrans 'Lemon Lime' ....... Dracaena fragrans 'Lemon Surprise'