World of CitrusValencia Orange
English nurseryman Thomas Rivers imported the variety from the Azores Islands and catalogued it in 1865 under the name Excelsior. Its ultimate origin remains uncertain.
Catalogued the cultivar as Excelsior in 1865.
Sources: [10]
About 1870 Thomas Rivers supplied trees of the cultivar to S. B. Parsons, a Long Island nurseryman, establishing one of the earliest documented introductions of the clone into the United States.
Sent the cultivar from England to S. B. Parsons in the United States around 1870.
Received trees of the cultivar from Thomas Rivers about 1870.
Sources: [10]
In 1876 Thomas Rivers sent trees to A. B. Chapman of San Gabriel, California. The unlabeled shipment included several varieties; one late-maturing orange was provisionally called Rivers Late.
Established and propagated the late orange selection in California after receiving it in 1876.
Source of the 1876 shipment received by A. B. Chapman.
Sources: [10]
Parsons sold trees to E. H. Hart of Federal Point, Florida, where the variety received the name Hart’s Tardiff in 1877. Hodgson reports that California comparisons decades later established that it was identical to Valencia Late, with Florida recognition coming later.
Hodgson reports that the variety received the name Hart’s Tardiff at Federal Point in 1877; the account does not identify who assigned the name.
Sources: [10]
A few years after provisionally calling the late orange Rivers Late, A. B. Chapman changed the name to Valencia Late at the suggestion of a Spanish visitor, who compared it with a late-maturing orange from the Valencia region. Hodgson does not give an exact naming year.
Adopted the name Valencia Late for his previously named Rivers Late selection.
Sources: [10]