The navel orange was discovered in 1820 in Bahia, Brazil, when a mutation occurred in a grove of sweet orange trees. In 1872, Brazil sent a dozen navel seedlings to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. The next year, Mrs. Eliza Tibbets of Riverside, California, was given a seedling from the USDA, and the seedling began producing fruit in 1878. This variety of orange became known as the Riverside Orange, but the name was changed to Washington for better national appeal. Other varieties of the navel orange include Atwood, Thomson, Fisher, Lane Late, Fukumoto, and Beele.
By 1882, over half a million citrus trees were growing in California. This time in history became known as the “other” California Gold Rush, which established
the citrus industry. Today, the parent Washington navel tree still stands in Riverside, though it was transplanted in 1902 from its original home to a different location. Despite its age, this tree, which is now protected, continues to bear fruit.
Because navel oranges are seedless, they can’t reproduce through pollination and require “budding” or grafting to create new trees. This process is done by taking a bud from a navel tree and grafting it onto another citrus plant. Because the budding process is used, navels today have the same genetic makeup as the first navel orange from the original tree.
Did You Know?
An orange tree can grow to reach 30 feet and live for over a hundred years.
