William Wolfskill (1798–1866) was an American born in Kentucky and reared in Missouri. He became a Mexican citizen in the 1820s, when he was in his 20s, while working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as a fur trapper and then migrating to California, which was still part of Mexico at that time. He was given a land grant as a naturalized Mexican citizen under Mexican government rules. He cultivated numerous vineyards and grape varietals and was the largest wine producer in the region. He continued to buy land and later had sheep ranches as well as developing extensive citrus orchards. He hybridized the Valencia orange, a sweet orange, naming it after València, Spain, which has a reputation for its sweet orange trees.
Before his death in 1866, Wolfskill sold his patented Valencia hybrid to the Irvine Ranch owners, who planted nearly half their lands in its cultivation. The success of this crop in Southern California led to the naming of Valencia, California. It became[when?] the most popular juice orange in the United States.[citation needed]
In the mid-20th century, Florida botanist Lena B. Smithers Hughes introduced major improvements to the Valencia orange, developing virus-free strains for budwood production. These were so successful that, by 1983, the Hughes Valencia bud line made up some 60 percent of all Valencia oranges propagated for cultivation in Florida.[2]
In 1988, Merleen Smith, a woman in Ventura County, California, contacted her local farm advisor on the suspicion that her neighbor was poisoning her tree. Investigators found that it was a pigmented bud sport of a conventional Valencia orange tree. The orange cultivar 'Smith Red Valencia' (with red insides) now bears her name.[3]
Primarily grown for processing and orange juice production, Valencia oranges have seeds, varying in number from zero to nine per fruit. Its excellent taste and internal color make it desirable for the fresh fruit markets, too. The fruit has an average diameter of 2.7 to 3 inches (69 to 76mm; 6.9 to 7.6cm), and a piece of this fruit which weighs 96 grams (3.4oz) has 45 calories and 9 grams of sugar.[4] After bloom, it usually carries two crops on the tree, the old and the new. The commercial harvest season in Florida runs from March to June. Worldwide, Valencia oranges are prized as the only variety of orange in season during summer.
In 2012, the genome of the orange was sequenced, and was found to have 29,445 protein-coding genes. It was also found that the sweet orange originated from a backcross hybrid between pomelo and mandarin orange.[5]
The Valencia orange undergoes nucellar embryony in both fertilized and unfertilized conditions of the ovule.
Hamlin
This cultivar was discovered by A. G. Hamlin near Glenwood, Florida, in 1879. The fruit is small, smooth, not highly colored, and juicy, with a pale yellow colored juice, especially in fruits that come from lemon rootstock. The fruit may be seedless, or may contain a number of small seeds. The tree is high-yielding and cold-tolerant and it produces good quality fruit, which is harvested from October to December. It thrives in humid subtropical climates. In cooler, more arid areas, the trees produce fruit too small for commercial use. Trees from groves in hammocks or areas covered with pine forest are budded on sour orange trees, a method that gives a high solids content. On sand, they are grafted on rough lemon rootstock.[6] The Hamlin orange has been one of the most popular juice oranges in Florida and replaced the Parson Brown variety as the principal early-season juice orange.[7]
Other Valencias
A variety of oranges being sold at a market in the Philippines
Bahia: grown in Brazil and Uruguay
Bali: grown in Bali, Indonesia. Larger than other orange
Belladonna: grown in Italy
Berna: grown mainly in Spain
Biondo Comune ("ordinary blond"): widely grown in the Mediterranean basin, especially in North Africa, Egypt, Greece (where it is called "koines"), Italy (where it is also known as "Liscio"), and Spain; it also is called "Beledi" and "Nostrale";[8] in Italy, this variety ripens in December, earlier than the competing Tarocco variety[9]
Biondo Riccio: grown in Italy
Byeonggyul: grown in Jeju Island, South Korea
Cadanera: a seedless orange of excellent flavor grown in Algeria, Morocco, and Spain; it begins to ripen in November and is known by a wide variety of trade names, such as Cadena Fina, Cadena sin Jueso, Precoce de Valence ("early from Valencia"), Precoce des Canaries, and Valence san Pepins ("seedless Valencia");[8] it was first grown in Spain in 1870[10]
Gardner: grown in Florida, this mid-season orange ripens around the beginning of February, approximately the same time as the Midsweet variety; Gardner is about as hardy as Sunstar and Midsweet[11]
Homosassa: grown in Florida
Jaffa orange: grown in the Middle East, also known as "Shamouti"
Jincheng: the most popular orange in China
Joppa: grown in South Africa and Texas
Khettmali: grown in Israel and Lebanon
A cross cutting scan of the interior of an orange
Kona: a type of Valencia orange introduced in Hawaii in 1792 by Captain George Vancouver; for many decades in the nineteenth century, these oranges were the leading export from the Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii; in Kailua-Kona, some of the original stock still bears fruit
Lima: grown in Brazil
Lue Gim Gong: grown in Florida, is an early scion developed by Lue Gim Gong, a Chinese immigrant known as the "Citrus Genius"; in 1888, Lue cross-pollinated two orange varieties—the Hart's late Valencia and the Mediterranean Sweet—and obtained a fruit both sweet and frost-tolerant; this variety was propagated at the Glen St. Mary Nursery, which in 1911 received the Silver Wilder Medal by the American Pomological Society;[6][12] originally considered a hybrid, the Lue Gim Gong orange was later found to be a nucellar seedling of the Valencia type,[6] which is properly called Lue Gim Gong; since 2006, the Lue Gim Gong variety is grown in Florida, although sold under the general name Valencia
Macetera: grown in Spain, it is known for its unique flavor
Orange seedling—although hybrid, oranges usually come true from seed, through maternal apomixis.
Malta: grown in Pakistan
Maltaise Blonde: grown in north Africa
Maltaise Ovale: grown in South Africa and in California under the names of Garey's or California Mediterranean Sweet
Marrs: grown in Texas, California and Iran, it is relatively low in acid
Medan: grown in Medan, Indonesia
Midsweet: grown in Florida, it is a newer scion similar to the Hamlin and Pineapple varieties, it is hardier than Pineapple and ripens later; the fruit production and quality are similar to those of the Hamlin, but the juice has a deeper color[11]
Moro Tarocco: grown in Italy, it is oval, resembles a tangelo, and has a distinctive caramel-colored endocarp; this color is the result of a pigment called anthocarpium, not usually found in citruses, but common in red fruits and flowers; the original mutation occurred in Sicily in the seventeenth century
Narinja: grown in Andhra, South India
Parson Brown: grown in Florida, Mexico, and Turkey, it once was a widely grown Florida juice orange, its popularity has declined since new varieties with more juice, better yield, and higher acid and sugar content have been developed; it originated as a chance seedling in Florida in 1865; its fruits are round, medium large, have a thick, pebbly peel and contain 10 to 30 seeds; it still is grown because it is the earliest maturing fruit in the United States, usually maturing in early September in the Valley district of Texas,[13] and from early October to January in Florida;[11] its peel and juice color are poor, as is the quality of its juice[13]
Pera: grown in Brazil, it is very popular in the Brazilian citrus industry and yielded 7.5 million metric tons in 2005
Pera Coroa: grown in Brazil
Pera Natal: grown in Brazil
Pera Rio: grown in Brazil
Pineapple: grown in North and South America and India
Pontianak: oval-shaped orange grown especially in Pontianak, Indonesia
Premier: grown in South Africa
Rhode Red: is a mutation of the Valencia orange, but the color of its flesh is more intense; it has more juice, and less acidity and vitamin C than the Valencia; it was discovered by Paul Rhode in 1955 in a grove near Sebring, Florida
Roble: it was first shipped from Spain in 1851 by Joseph Roble to his homestead in what is now Roble's Park in Tampa, Florida; it is known for its high sugar content
Queen: grown in South Africa
Salustiana: grown in North Africa
Sathgudi: grown in Tamil Nadu, South India
Seleta, Selecta: grown in Australia and Brazil, it is high in acid
Shamouti Masry: grown in Egypt; it is a richer variety of Shamouti
Sunstar: grown in Florida, this newer cultivar ripens in mid-season (December to March) and it is more resistant to cold and fruit-drop than the competing Pineapple variety; the color of its juice is darker than that of the competing Hamlin[11]
Tomango: grown in South Africa
Verna: grown in Algeria, Mexico, Morocco, and Spain
Hodgson, Willard (1967–1989) [1943]. "Chapter 4: Horticultural Varieties of Citrus". In Webber, Herbert John; rev Walter Reuther and Harry W. Lawton (eds.). The Citrus Industry. Riverside, California: University of California Division of Agricultural Sciences. Archived from the original on February 5, 2012.
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