In 1820, in a monastery garden in Bahia, Brazil, a hybrid of the Sweet Orange known as the Bahia Navel Orange was created. Brazil sent a dozen of these trees to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. in 1870. The Mother of California’s Navel orange industry was Mrs. Eliza Tibbetts, who in 1873 planted the first two U. S. “bud sports” (mutant bud stock) of the Bahia Navel in Riverside, California. The trees flourished, and the fruit was clearly superior to any other commercial orange variety of the day in size, appearance, texture, and flavor. The fact that navel oranges were also seedless further enhanced their prospects as table fruit. Mother Tibbetts’s orange was originally named the Riverside Navel by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. However, other Southern California citrus growers objected, vehemently, and campaigned for a name of more “national” appeal. Thus the Navel orange and all its descendants were named after the nation’s father, George Washington. All new varieties of Navel oranges can trace their roots back to the original Washington Navel.
