He Parent Navel Orange Tree T a Brief History of a Remarkable Tree
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PublishedVictoria by Victoria Avenue Forever Ave Volume 19news No. 3 • December 2011 he Parent Navel Orange Tree T A brief history of a remarkable tree. By Dr. Chester N. Roistacher The threat of greening disease to all California citrus California is now threatened with the most serious disease of citrus known as the greening disease (huang long bing). This disease has dramatically reduced the life of citrus trees in many parts of the world and is currently devastating the citrus industries of Brazil and Florida, two of the worlds largest citrus producers. The disease is present in Mexico and its psyllid vector Diaphorina citri is present in Texas and California. Our current situation in California may be compared to a dry forest waiting for a match to ignite it - the match being the bacterial organism responsible for the disease. There is currently a tremendous effort to keep this bacteria from en- tering California. Should this bacteria enter, the disease will spread rapidly as it has in other countries, our citrus and citrus industry in California would be at risk! Fig. 1. The 136 year old parent Washington navel orange tree, located in a special park at the Can a citrus tree live for more than 12 years? corner of Arlington and Magnolia avenues in Riv- In 1995 during a consultancy visit to Thailand, I was asked erside, California. The tree is alive and healthy and to lecture to the staff of Kasetsart University located in Bangkok. still bearing fruit. This historic tree has to be one The lecture was on the problems of the greening disease in their of the most important, if not the most important country where their citrus trees lived for only 4 to 8 years and rarely plant introduction ever made into the United States reach 12 years of age. The lecture was well attended by many young of America. Possibly all Washington navel orange trees throughout the world are derived from this staff scientists. During the lecture I showed them a picture of a large one parent tree. citrus tree dying with the greening disease (Fig.2). While showing this picture, almost half the audience raised their hands and one by Continued on page 3 Early History of Victoria Avenue Forever Join By Hal Synder, First VAF President the For several months in the summer of 1990, a group of friends had been meeting to discuss the mainte- fun on nance of Victoria Avenue. This group consisted of Pati Weir, Mary Humbolt, Rosanna Scott, Earl Shade and I. On November 10, 1990 the Press- Enterprise ran a color picture of a Eucalyptus tree on the Avenue with Work the shocking caption, “Dead trees marked for removal.” The group was stunned by this news and decided to organize, and named itself “Victoria Avenue Forever” (VAF). The aim of VAF was to raise funds to supple- Days! ment the city budget for planting trees, to organize volunteers to plant them and them to care for them. See page Special events were used to get out the word about VAF and its objectives. One of these events was the celebration of the centennial of the Victoria Avenue Bridge in November 1991. With the traffic rerouted, an 2 for Continued on page 5 details. ef 2 From the Editor, Darleen DeMason This is my first newsletter. I have been a Board member for a number of years and I have a deep personal commitment to this group and this Avenue. For my “day job” I am a Professor of Botany at UCR and this year will be my 34th (and last!) year. As editor, I am hoping to have several regular features in every newsletter: a landscape feature, a historical perspective, a letter from our President, Frank Heyming and recent and upcoming Avenews. In this issue we have the first of a two part article on the intimate history of the Navel Orange and Riverside by a local expert, Dr. Chester N. Roistacher. This is because navel orange trees have always been a part of Victoria Avenue and because the City of Riverside, as part of the Renaissance projects, has recently added many new trees to the Avenue from end to end. The historical perspective is an article written by Hal Snyder, who has always been a source of inspiration for me on the early history of Victoria Avenue Forever. And our President has written an article about plant names or, as we say in the trade, botanical nomenclature. We also have some work days and some exciting projects planned for this year. And, as always, we want to recognize everyone who has donated to VAF and the Avenue since the last newsletter. If there are topics or information you want to see in the newsletter, please feel free to contact me. I’d love to hear from you. Darleen DeMason, Editor • [email protected] • (951) 398-1032 2011 - 2012 Officers News Along the Avenue Frank Heyming, President Upkeep in the Snyder and Dr. Lewis Gardens Frank Yost, Vice President Beginning last summer VAF hired Ed’s Yard Care to do routine weeding, minor prun- Jim Dudek, Treasurer ing and irrigation checks weekly. The gardens have never looked better and this liberates Susan McCliintock us to use work days to do more substantive projects on the Avenue. Recording Secretary Directors Facelift for the Lorraine Small Rose Garden Darleen DeMason We are planning to prune, replace plants, fix irrigation and mulch the Lorraine Small Kurt Gunther Rose Garden, which is in the median on Victoria Avenue near Ivy. This effort is being Marilyn Harris led by Kathy Swanson and Jim Montgomery. Jim did the original design for that Garden. Jim Montgomery The planting is planned for the February work day. Kathy Swanson Adam Timura Updates on the Victoria Avenue/ Myrtle Avenue Memorial Orange Patti Weir Grove & Trailhead Project Lori Yates The Board has been providing feedback on this exciting new future addition to the Lynn Yost parks on the Avenue. It will be located on the westerly side of Victoria Avenue between Special Projects Myrtle Avenue and Rumsey Drive. The City has been working on the designs for some Publications: time. A neighborhood meeting took place inNovember and the Cultural Heritage Board Kurt Gunther • Darleen DeMason will discuss the plans at an upcoming meeting. The Board is very enthusiastic about the Lori Yates • Marsha Loveridge project. Victoria Avenue Forever is a public ben- efit nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation Tax ID 33-0571694 dedicated to the preserva- Saturday, January 21, 2012 tion and beautification of Victoria Avenue. Contributions are 100% tax deductible. 9:00 to 11:30 The VAF board meets at 6:30 on Corner of Adams and Victoria Avenue the 2nd Wednesday of each month (except August). Bring shovels. email address: [email protected] Saturday, February 18, 2012 website: www.victoriaavenue.org Mailing address: Work Days 9:00 to 11:30 PO Box 4152, Riverside, CA 92514 Lorraine Small Rose Garden or call (951) 398-1032 Myrtle and Victoria Victoria Avenews Bring shovels, pruners and rakes. is published 4 - 6 times a year by Victoria Avenue Forever Parent Navel Orange Tree, continued from page one 3 one, said that the picture of this tree could not have been taken in A brief history of the navel orange Thailand for they had never seen a tree of this size. In truth, the Historically, an orange containing navel like protrusion at the picture was taken in Thailand by Dr. E.C. Calavan who visited bottom of the fruit had been known for centuries and illustrated Thailand in 1975 and gave me this slide. All of these younger in old books. The sweet orange was introduced into Bahia, Bra- scientists assumed that citrus trees lived a short period of time zil around 1530 but no mention was made of the navel orange and were replaced when they were dying or had died of greening until 1802 where Vilhena (1921) wrote in his letters to Portugal disease as was the standard in Thailand. I then showed them the “de `umbigo’ (navel) in Bahia is bigger and juicier then fruit in picture of the Parent navel orange tree which was 120 years old at Portugal and has different qualities.” The introduction of the navel the time of my lecture and they could not grasp that a citrus tree orange into Bahia was thought to be at the end of the 18th century. could live that long. Today, this historical parent navel orange The first recorded shipment of budwood and trees of the navel tree located at the corner of Arlington and Magnolia Avenues in orange into the United States was made in 1871 from Bahia, Brazil Riverside is 138 years old (Fig. 1). It is still bearing large beauti- to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Wash- ful fruit and is in good health. In this first of two articles I wish to ington, D.C. William Saunders who was then Superintendent of relate a little of the early history of this very important tree. the Gardens and Grounds of the USDA received budwood which arrived dry and dead. He then sent a letter requesting that someone be employed to graft a few trees on young rootstocks and that all expenses would be paid by the Department. Ultimately a box ar- rived containing 12 newly budded trees which were in fairly good condition. In an excellent and recently published book (Ortlieb and Economy, 2011) on the life of Eliza Tibbets and her part in bringing the Washington navel orange to Riverside, the authors relate how Eliza and Luther Tibbets (Fig.