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| What is the history of oranges? | to Top |
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There is also a detailed history of Orangeries available at an alternate site.
Citrus fruits have been cultivated from remote ages. It has been so long since wild citrus was used that the prototype forms of the most important species, such as citrus sinensis are not definitely known. Comparatively little change has been required to develop the best present day varieties from the fruits of the most primitive types known. Herbert Webber believes that "the citrus fruits which first attracted the attention of primitive peoples were already highly developed through the processes of natural evolution. They were thus chosen as fruits worthy of cultivation and presumably the crude selection of the best individuals for propagation had been going on for many centuries before any type came to be cultivated in European countries".
Citrus fruits as a class are native to southeastern Asia-eastern India, Indo-China, southern China, the Philippines-and in these areas they were first brought under cultivation. The sweet orange had been grown for many centuries in China and had apparently reached an advanced stage of cultivation before it became known to europeans. A somewhat difference but not contrary view is that of Walter T. Swingle who says the genus Citrus is the "culmination of a very long period of progressive evolution that certainly began before Australia was cut off from land connection with New Guinea and Asia, probably more than 20 million years ago. The genus Microcitrus, closely related to Citrus, occurs both in southern New Guinea (1 species) and in northeastern Australia. A related genus, Eremocitrus, originated in Australia. The genus (Citrus) may have originated in the New Guinea-Melanesia region, but its evolution into many different species took place chiefly on the mainland of southeastern Asia. In fact, it is only there that the most highly developed species of Citrus may be considered as indigenous.
Vavilov in his Botanical-Geographic Principles of Selection cites India as the center of origin of wild and cultivated Citrus sinensis and China as a very important secondary center.
A monograph on the oranges of Wenchow, china composed in China during the period 1174 to 1189 (Nan Yen-Chih's Chu Lu) is the earliest treatise on citrus culture known. Even at this early date three horticultural groups of oranges were recognized, and the total number of varieties listed was 27. From the Orient the various types and varieties spread to other parts of the world along the trade routes. The citron reached the Mediterranean region at an early date, as it is mentioned by Theophrastus (died about 287 B.C.) The sweet orange apparently was not introduced into Europe until the early fifteenth century. The sour orange reached Spain by way of northern Africa.
Sturtevant in his Notes on Edible Plantws says that "The mass of evidence collected by Professor Targioni-Tozzetti seems to show that oranges were first brought from india into Arabia in the ninth century, that they were unknown in europe, or at any rate in italy, in the eleventh, but were shortly afterwards carried westward by the Moors. They were in cultivation at Seville towards the end of the twelfth century and at palermo in the thirteenth and elsewhere also in italy, for it is said that st. Domine planted an orange tree for the convent of St. Sabina in Rome in the year 1200. In the course of the same century, the crusaders found citrons, oranges and lemons abundant in Palestine, and in the fourteenth century oranges and lemons became common in several parts of Italy.
On his second voyage to the New World in 1493 Columbus stopped off for two days early in October at Gomera, Grand Canary Island, where he purchased livestock and fruit and vegetable seeds, among which were "seeds of oranges, lemons and citrons". He reached the island of Hispaniola (Haiti) on November 22, 1493, and in the course of establishing a colony he 'set out orchards, planted gardens'. Citrus fruits were established at St. Augustine, eastern Florida, by 1579 and Peru before 1591. They were introduced into southern California in 1769 by Franciscan monks at san Diego and there were undoubtedly many similar introductions into Brazil, Mexico and other regions settled by the Spanish. In Florida, the sour orange and to a lesser extent the sweet orange and the lime escaped to the wild.
The sour orange (Citrus aurantium) was unknown to the Romans despite the vast extent of the empire and its wide commercial relations, but as the Roman Empire disintegrated and the Arab Empire expanded (A.D. 570-900) the Arabs spread knowledge about citrus. An Arab writer, Massoudi, is quoted as saying that the sour orange was brought from India after the year 300 of the hegira (A.D. 922), was first sown in Oman (part of Arabia) and was carried in his Antidotary had a recipe for making oil from oranges and their seeds, and Avicenna, a famous Arab herbalist who died in A.D. 1050, gave a recipe of his own for making "syrup of alkadere" in which he put juice of the bigarade (sour orange). "Thus it is certain", says Webber, "that the sour orange was known to the Arabs and was introduced by them some time during the tenth century A.D. into Persia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt and apparently later into northern Africa, Sicily, Sardinia and Spain."
Apparently the first description of the sour orange was that give by Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) under the name Arangus (certainly very close to the word "orange".) He stated that the fruit is short and round, the tree larger and more cold resistant than the citron, the leaves appearing to be divided into two, the largest left toward end standing above the smaller one.
There is no reference to the sweet orange before the fifteenth century, according to Webber. By the beginning of the sixteenth century, however, there was abundant evidence showing that the sweet orange had become well established and had assumed commercial importance in southern Europe. It does not seem to have been cultivated until toward the middle of the fifteenth century.
Navagero in his Spanish Voyage, published in 1525, described the prodigious trees in the Kitchen garden of the King at Sevilla, all of which were sweet oranges. Possibly most important of all as proving the wide distribution of this species at the beginning of the sixteenth century, is the statement of the learned monk, leandro Alberti, who traveled in Itay in 1523. He stated that he saw immense plantations of orange, lemon and citron trees in Sicily, Calabria, upon the borders of the river Salo in Liguria and in many other places. He expressly stated that a great number of varieties were cultivated and that most of them had a sweet fruit.
Gallesio concluded from his careful study of historic evidence that the sweet orange probably reached Europe first through the commercial trade route established and maintained by the Genoese.
Although it seems certain that the sweet orange had been introduced into Europe approximately a century before the Portuguese reached China, it also seems certain that the Portuguese contributed much to the spread and popularization of orange growing by introducing a superior variety. This new variety, which later came to be known as the Portugal orange, eviently stimulated the industry much as the introduction of the Washington naval stimulated orange culture in California. The motehr tree of the (Portugal) variety was evidently the imported tree from China described by Valmont de Bomare (1764) as 'still growing in the Garden of the Count St. Laurent' at Lisbon'.
The first greenhouses were "orangeries". In the early growing of oranges and other citrus fruits, frost injury caused much difficulty. Then came the first efforts of civilied man to grow tender exotic plants under special shelters. Early accounts contain many references to different methods of protection which were used to preserve citrons and oranges form cold injury, and apparently in the 14th century fanciers began to use specially heated buildings to provide an artifical climate. They were primarily for citrons and oranges but were also used for other exotic plants.
Webber believes the evidence that the orange reached continental America July 12, 1518. This is based on manuscript written in 1568 by Bernal Diaz del Castillo found in the archives of Guatemala. Diaz made early voyages to Central America and Mexico in connection with the expedition of jan de Grijalva to what is now Mexico. The expedition left cuba on Arpil 8, 1518 and returned on November 15, 1518. diaz reports that he sowed seeds of some oranges near an "idol hosue", and they came up well. The priests saw they were a new plant and kept them watered and free of weeds. Later, says Diaz, he transplanted some and they turned out very well. It is not clear where the seeds were planted, but the area that is now Vera Cruz is mentioned.
The earliest history of citrus on the continent is obscure, but it is certain that orange trees were abundant in Haiti by 1525. Oviedo wrote that: "They have multiplied (there) so abundantly that now they are past counting; the fruit is very good, both the sweet and the sour. They grow in this city of Santo Domingo and all over the islands wherever Christians have their estates and gardens."
Later (1554) Gomara referred to oranges having become abundant in Central America.
Acosta (1590) refers to "conserve of oranges which they do make tat the Islands (and) is the best I have seene anie where".
A document of 1540 shows oranges had been introduced into Brazil by the Portugese. The Jesuits arrived in Bahia, Brazil in 1549. they transformed the grounds surrounding their residences into orchards including many citrus trees.
Webber says that the exact date of the introduction of citrus fruits into Florida is unknown but it is certain they were brought in by Spanish explorers and colonists between 1513, when Ponce de Leon first landed in Florida, and 1565 when St. Augustine, the first colony in Florida was established.
Citrus fruits were introduced into several sections of the southeastern United States in the latter part of the 16th century. Wild citrus groves spread in various parts of Florida, especially around Indian villages. These groves were mainly sour and bittersweet oranges but the Rough lemon and lime were also found growing wild. In 1875 harris noted extensive groves of oranges at orange Lake in the northern part of marion Co., Florida. The trees were 12 to 15 feet in height, interspersed with oak, hickory, bay and others.
Early historical records indicate citrus fruits reached what is now Arizona before settlements had been established in California. Oranges appear to have been introduced into Arizona in the early days of the 18th century.
It seems established that oranges and lemons were cultivated in the mission gardens of lower california (that is, in Mexico) prior to 1739. Definite records of when the first citrus trees or seeds were planted in what is now california have not been found. However, it is known that in 1769 the Franciscan monks under the leadership of Fra Junipero Serra left Lower California and founded the first of their missions at San Diego. Twenty-one missions were ultimately established along the coast as far north as San Rafael. The missions had to produce their own food and all but three maintained gardens and orchards. It is probable oranges and lemons were grown, since they had previously been cultivated by these monks in Lower California..
Oranges were definitely mentioned by the explorer Vancouver in 1798 as having been seen in 1793 growing in abundance in the mission garden at Buena Ventura, California. Webber says that the first orange grove of much size was set out in the state at the San Gabriel mission about 1804 by Father Thomas Sanchez. He planted about 400 trees.
By 1830 it had become common in California to plant a few citrus trees in gardens, but no commercial grove had been developed. In 1831 William Wolfskill, a Kentucky trapper of German descent, came overland to california with the idea of going into the citrus growing business. Despite the ridicule of his short-sighted neighbors, Wolfskill persisted in maintaining his grove and expanding his plantings. He finally had 790 acres in oranges and make it pay. The last crop in his lifetime, from 28 acres, sold on the trees for $25,000.
By 1867 California had 17,000 orange trees according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The development of orange, lemon and lime groves in the Riverside colony was very rapid between 1871 and 1880. Completion of the transcontinental railways stimulated the fruit industries. The first carload of oranges shipped east from California was form the famous Wolfskill orchard in Los Angeles and went to St. Louis in 1877.
Iin Florida, where oranges were first planted in what is now the United States, the first big expansion came in the 1870's as growers realized the size of the potential market. In 1874 to 1877 about 200 million oranges were imported annually into the eastern United States, mostly from the Mediterranean area but also from the West Indies. All fo these could have been grown in Florida. Plantings were made in north central Florida, with considerable topworking of wild sour orange trees to convert them to producers of sweet oranges. The big freeze of 1894-95, however, caused plantings to shift south. The change from growing of citrus fruits on a small scale, often as a crop of secondary interest to the grower, to its production on the large commercial scale now characteristic of Florida has occurred since 1900.
Seelig, R.A. 1966March. Fruit & Vegetable Facts & Pointers: Oranges. United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association, 777 14th Street, N.W., Washington D.C. | to Top |
Updated: Tuesday, May 22, 2007.
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