Sampson Tangelo

UCR records Sampson as an 1897 Swingle cross in Florida between grapefruit and Dancy tangerine. USDA Circular 181 describes Dancy as the pollen parent and reports 76 seeds and 106 seedlings; Sampson was recorded among the seedlings as C.P.B. 1316. A separate 1904 Yearbook account describes an ordinary pomelo female × Dancy tangerine pollen cross made in Frank Savage’s Eustis grove and identifies No. 1316 as an intermediate seedling. These sources provide different attributed historical descriptions of the parentage.^{⁠[1]⁠[2]⁠[9]}

UCR describes Sampson as a large, vigorous, spreading tree with cupped leaves. Its reproduced Hodgson description calls the fruit medium-sized and globose to slightly obovate, with a thin, relatively adherent rind and juicy, dull-orange flesh; the flavor is described as somewhat acidic with a distinctive bitterish tang. UCR lists November–January ripening at Riverside, while Todolí’s Spanish collection calendar lists January–April availability, a distinct collection record rather than a measured harvest window.^⁠[1]⁠[5]

UCR says Webber and Swingle named and described Sampson in 1904 and that it saw little commercial use beyond limited rootstock use, ornamental plantings and oddity collections. Robinson’s 1934 Florida account groups Sampson and Thornton in a December–March shipping season and says Sampson shipped poorly because its skin was very thin; he reports scab susceptibility and costly spraying as factors in its commercial decline.^⁠[1]⁠[4]

Bitters and colleagues describe Sampson seedlings used as rootstock as slow-growing, stunted and much-branched but of acceptable caliper; lopping encouraged vigorous growth suitable for budding. They also associate malformed unions, particularly with lemon scions, with low budding height in certain graft combinations. These are historical rootstock observations, not evidence of Sampson fruit-tree performance.^⁠[7]