Among the many cultivars of oranges are 'Hamlin', a heavy producer of very juicy, few-seeded, smooth-skinned fruits, October through January; 'Valencia', a thin-skinned juice orange grown commercially in California and Florida, producing March through July; 'Washington', the original "navel" orange grown mainly in California for the fresh fruit market, October through January; 'Pineapple', the leading midseason commercial orange in Florida, fruiting December through February; and 'Parson Brown', a midseason juicy and seedy orange for dooryard planting that fruits October through December.
Hamlin (Norris) .
Fruit medium-small, globose to slightly oblate; sometimes with low radially furrowed collar and faint areolar ring; seeds very few or none. Well-colored at maturity (one of the best in Florida). Rind thin, with smooth, finely pitted surface. Flesh well-colored; tender, juicy, lacking in acid; flavor sweet. One of the earliest to mature.
Tree moderately vigorous, medium-large, productive, and more cold-tolerant than most.
The Hamlin variety originated as a chance seedling in an orchard near Glenwood, Florida, which was planted in 1879, and was named for the owner, A. G. Hamlin, at the time its value was recognized some years later. It came into prominence following the great Florida freeze of 1894-95 as a rival of Parson, the only other variety of similar early maturity, and has gradually replaced it. Currently, it is a major variety in Florida, of considerable importance as an export variety in Brazil, of limited importance in South Africa and elsewhere, and possibly the world's principal variety of very early maturing common sweet orange.
In semitropical climates characterized by high heat and humidity, this variety produces fruit of satisfactory size for marketing fresh, although the eating quality is generally somewhat disappointing. In arid, subtropical climates, fruit size is commonly smaller than desirable though the quality may be satisfactory.
Valencia (Valencia Late, Hart Late, Hart's Tardiff)
Fruit medium-large, oblong to spherical; areole ring faint or lacking; seeds few or none. Well-colored at maturity, but regreens thereafter under certain conditions. Rind medium-thick, tough, and leathery; surface smooth to faintly pebbled. Juice abundant and flavor good but commonly somewhat acid. Fruit holds exceptionally well on tree with little deterioration in quality and ships and stores well. Excellent for processing. Latest maturing of all commercial varieties.
Tree vigorous, somewhat upright, large and prolific, but with alternate-bearing tendency. Very wide range of adaptation.
This variety should not be confused with the Spanish Valencia Temprana and various seedling clones grown in the region of Valencia, Spain.
The total heat requirement for maturity of the Valencia orange is so high that only in the hottest regions is it satisfied prior to the succeeding bloom. In the United States, this usually occurs in Florida, the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and the low elevation desert areas of Arizona and California, where legal maturity is normally attained in January or February, though the fruit may be stored on the trees for several months thereafter, extending into or through the succeeding period of bloom. In regions of lower total heat, however, maturity is later and overlaps the bloom, sometimes by several months. As a consequence, in most regions where this variety is grown the trees normally carry two cropsthe old, which is ripe or reasonably close to maturity, and the new, at any stage of bloom to half-grown or thereabout. In regions of mild winters and moderately low total heat during the growing season, such as the coastal belt of southern California, Valencia becomes a summer-ripening fruit, but with crops that alternate appreciably in amount and somewhat in fruit size. Because the fruit stores remarkably well on the trees without much dropping and little loss in quality, it is practicable in this cool, equable region to extend the harvesting season through the summer into fall and to ship tree-ripened Valencia oranges as late as October or early November17 or 18 months from the time of bloom.
Presumably associated with its very high total heat requirement and the relatively high acid content of the fruit is the fact that the Valencia orange exhibits the widest range of climatic adaptation of any orange variety of commercial importance. It is suitable for the heat-deficient, mild, subtropical climate of coastal southern California, the hot, low elevation desert regions of California and Arizona, the humid, semitropical climate of Florida, and tropical climates in general.
As might be expected, Valencia is therefore much the most important variety of the common sweet orange group and seems likely to remain so. It is of major importance in both Florida and California and currently accounts for about half the total orange production of the United States. It is also of major importance in South Africa, Australia, and Mexico and of considerable importance in Israel, Algeria, Morocco, and Brazil. In the 1965-66 season, production was 48.9 million boxes (90-1b) in Florida and 19.3 million boxes (75-1b) in California and Arizona. Including production elsewhere, a conservative estimate of the current world production of this variety would appear to be not less than 100 million 70-pound box equivalents. In Florida, approximately 80 per cent of the crop is processed for juice products, whereas in California about two-thirds is shipped fresh.
The common assumption that this variety is of Spanish origin is not supported by the evidence. While varieties of similar appearance exist in the Valencia region of Spain and elsewhere, none is characterized by the lateness of maturity of Valencia. Berna, which approaches it in late maturity, is altogether different in other respects. Valencia Temprana, the only Spanish variety with the name Valencia, is an early ripening fruit of smaller size and flatter form that is no longer propagated (Gonzalez-Sicilia, 1963, pp. 198 and 201). Moreover, Gonzalez-Sicilia states (1963, p. 211) that the Valencia variety originated in the United States and was introduced into Spain by the Estación Naranjera de Levante at Burjasot, near Valencia.
The English nurseryman, Thomas Rivers of Sawbridgeworth, imported this variety from the Azores Islands and catalogued it in 1865 under the name Excelsior (Coit, 1915). About 1870, he provided trees to S. B. Parsons, a Long Island Nurseryman, and in 1876 he sent trees to A. B. Chapman of San Gabriel, California. In the meantime, Parsons sold trees to E. H. Hart of Federal Point, Florida, where in 1877 the variety received the name Hart's Tardiff. According to Webber (1943, p. 523), the trees received by Chapman were unlabeled and included several varieties, one of which proved to be late maturing and was provisionally called Rivers Late. A few years later Chapman changed the name to Valencia Late at the suggestion of a Spanish visitor who pronounced it similar to a late-maturing variety in the region of Valencia. It was not until several decades later that comparisons in California established the fact that these two indistinguishable varieties were identical and much later that this fact received recognition in Florida.
While this variety can be traced back to the Azores, it seems unlikely that it originated there and probable that it came from Portugal. That likelihood has been greatly strengthened by the recent discovery there of an old variety that is indistinguishable from Valencia, which has been named Don João (Galvão, 1943; Chapot, 1963c).
Byron O. Clark (1916) appears to have been the nurseryman most responsible for the popularization of the Valencia orange in California. The first commercial orchard was established near Placentia about 1880 when R. H. Gilman converted a young planting of five acres to the new variety by top-budding. The first carload of Valencia oranges shipped to eastern markets, however, is reported to have been sent in 1877 by J. R. Dobbins of San Gabriel.
Other varieties that are indistinguishable from Valencia include Lue Gim Gong and Pope of Florida, Natal of Brazil, Calderon of Argentina, and Harward of New Zealand. Two of theseLue Gim Gong and Harwardare known to have originated as Valencia seedlings and doubtless represent nucellar selections of that variety.
As would be expected in a clonal variety of such extensive propagation and wide distribution, bud variation of Valencia has given rise to a number of mutant varieties, among which are Armstrong and Perry of California, Muden of South Africa, and Seedless Valencia of Australia. Ksiri, a seedless mutation, has recently been reported in Morocco (Merle, Chapot and Huet, 1964).
For some decades past, clonal selections have been widely used in both Australia and California and presumably to some extent elsewhere. Those currently most popular in Australia are reported to be Berri, Lord Howe, and Norton or Chaffee. These and St. Ives, a selection used in coastal New South Wales, all trace back to outstanding trees propagated from introductions made by the Chaffey Brothers of California in the early 1890's for use in their nursery operations at Mildura, Victoria. Another selection is Chapman, which came direct from California. Levitt reports that when grown side by side at the Narara Horticultural Research Station, New South Wales, these Australian clonal selections have been indistinguishable and without significant differences in performance or behavior.4 Under the arid conditions of the lower Murray River Valley, however, they hold their color and juice qualities later into the summer and fall than other selections.
The principal five old budline clonal selections in California have been Azusa, Randall, Hardison, San Marino, and Sespe. The latter three closely trace back to the original tree at San Gabriel and are not more than two or three bud generations removed from it. Azusa is undoubtedly not far removed from the original tree, but the parent tree is unknown. Randall is known to have been introduced from Florida in 1903 as Hart's Tardiff, the name given to this variety there in 1877. Distinctive differences between these California clonal selections are not discernible.
In recent years, most of the trees planted in California have been of nucellar budlines, which are virus-free, more vigorous, and commonly more productive. Currently the most popular of these are Cutter, Frost, and Olinda. The latter two are indistinguishable, but Cutter appears to be somewhat more vigorous, presumably because of its more recent origin. Campbell is also popular and outstandingly vigorous. In the opinion of the writer, however, the parent clone differs from Valencia and constitutes a separate variety.
