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Origins and History of Fruit Trees
Historical information on a wide range of fruit trees and berries
History of Introduced Fruits into America - Native American Fruit Trees
and Hybrid Fruit Tree Improvements
Copyright © 2006 Patrick Malcolm
Christopher Columbus in 1493 introduced citrus trees into America
on the Island of Haiti, by planting the seed of the sweet orange
tree, the sour orange, citron, lemon, lime, and pummelo fruit
trees. Records show that citrus trees were well established by
the Spanish in coastal South Carolina and Saint Augustine,
Florida by the year 1563.
Historical English documents show that the Massachusetts Company
in 1629 sent seeds of pear trees to plant and grow into fruit
trees at the American colony located at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Captain John Smith reported in 1629 that seed-grown peach trees
were growing in the American colony at Jamestown, Virginia. Apple
trees were grown at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1629 by William
Blackstone, an American colonist, and this practice of planting
fruit trees rapidly spread among many other farmers there.
Other fruit tree seeds that were sent for colonist farmers to
plant and grow were: cherry, peach, plum, filbert, apple, quince,
and pomegranate, and according to documents, "they sprung up and
flourished."
In 1707 historical Spanish mission documents show that fruit
trees being grown by the Spanish-Americans were: oranges, fig
trees, quince, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, apples, pear
trees, mulberries, pecans and other trees.
General Oglethorpe, the first governor of the colony of Georgia,
settled at Fort Frederica, located at Saint Simons Island,
Georgia, in 1733, the same date that the city of Savannah,
Georgia was founded, with the appointed purpose of introducing
fruit trees that would grow valuable food sources for the Georgia
farmers. John Bartram, the famous explorer and father of William
Bartram traveled extensively, after the Spanish abandoned their
lands, to take an inventory of plants, trees, and vines that
might be useful to farmers in the American colonies.
General Oglethorpe imported 500 white mulberry trees, Morus alba,
in 1733 to encourage and economically support the developing
colonial interests in silk production at Fort Frederica, Georgia,
colony of the English on the island of Saint Simons, Georgia.
Henry Laurens, a President of the American Continental Congress
from South Carolina, introduced: olives, limes, everbearing
strawberry, and red raspberry for culture in the colonies and
from the south of France, he imported and introduced apples,
pears, plums, and the white Chasselas grape which bore
abundantly.
In 1763, George Mason recorded in his extensive fruit journal of
his home orchard that he had planted an old French variety of
pear tree, and he "grafted 10 black pear of Worchester."
The Black Mission fig tree was made famous when it was found
growing at a Spanish monastery in 1770.
The first American fruit tree nursery was opened in 1737 by
Robert Prince at Flushing, New York who sold fruit to President
George Washington, who visited the nursery. Prince Nursery
advertised "42 pear trees for sale" in 1771 and "33 kinds of
plums." 500 white mulberry trees, Morus Alba, and 1000 black
mulberry trees, Morus nigra, were bought by Robert Prince in
1774. Robert Prince sold an extensive list of grafted peach trees
to President Thomas Jefferson, to be planted at the Jefferson
home orchard at Monticello, Virginia. President Thomas Jefferson
loved eating peaches, and he dried the peach slices into "peach
chips" for his granddaughter and fermented fresh peaches into
peach wine and distilled the mixture further into peach brandy.
Jefferson also introduced the French mixture of tea and fresh
peach juice called pesche (peach) tea. Jefferson experimented
with the delightful "black plumb peach" of Georgia, well known
today and still sold as the "Indian Blood Peach Tree." Jefferson
believed the Indian Blood Peach grew true to name from planted
seed. Jefferson believed this celebrated peach tree had resulted
from a natural hybrid cross between the French imported variety,
"Sanguinole, " and naturalized peach trees, that were being grown
by the Indians. Mulberry trees were planted at Thomas
Jefferson's Monticello home at a distance of 20 feet apart along
with a list of other fruit trees, grapevines, and pecan trees.
William Bartram, in his book, Travels, wrote that he saw vigorous
"two or three large apple trees" growing near Mobile, Alabama in
1773. These trees were likely grown from apple seed planted
earlier by Indians, a gift from earlier American colonial
farmers. Bartram also reported "the wild crabapple," Pyrus
coronaria, growing among the apple trees, probably a pollinator.
William Bartram wrote that he visited near Mobile Alabama the
remains of "ancient habitations, being there an abundance of
peach and fig trees loaded with fruit."
Bartram also reported that orange trees were grown and cultivated
in large groves in 1790 and "3000 gallons of orange juice were
exported." Bartram mistakenly thought that the extensive orchards
of citrus trees growing in Florida were native trees, but they
had been planted by the Spanish explorers centuries before his
book, Travels, was published.
William Bartram discovered the Ogeechee lime tree, Nyssa
Ogeechee, growing near the Ogeechee River in Georgia, that "no
tree exhibits a more desirable appears than this, in the autumn,
when the fruit is ripe" and the fruit "containing an agreeable
acid juice." In his explorations, Bartram also reported seeing
Chickasaw plum, Prunus chicasaw, and another wild plum, Prunus
indica. In 1773, Bartram discovered fig trees planted and
flourishing at Fort Frederica, Georgia, writing that after
searching the ruins in the town, "only remain, peach trees, figs,
pomegranates, and other shrubs, growing out of the ruinous walls
of former spacious and expansive buildings, not only in the town,
but at a distance in various parts of the island" of Saint
Simons, Georgia.
Banana trees were introduced into America from Europe by the
early Spanish explorers, and the plantain banana, that required
cooking to eat, mutated from a green hard fruit to a sweet, fresh
eating, yellow banana in the year 1836. A Jamaican, Jean Francois
Poujot, discovered this outstanding banana cultivar growing quite
distinctively different in appearance from the other plantain
bananas planted in the field. Mr. Poujot multiplied this banana
tree mutation into what would become the most popular and the
most famous fruit tree in the world.
Apple tree orchards developed very rapidly in the 1800's from
the sale of apple seed for planting by the legendary Johnny
Appleseed.
Perhaps the greatest developmental horticulturist and pomologist
who ever lived was Luther Burbank, who settled in California and
published a giant set of 10 volumes of books that outlined his
fantastic experiments to improve fruit trees, berry plants,
grapevines, nut trees, and many other perennials to include shade
trees. Luther Burbank bred out the fuzz from peaches, which he
stabilized into commercial nectarine trees. He also made many
advances in hybridizing tasty varieties of plums and peach trees.
Burbank imported Japanese, Oriental plum trees to be inbred with
native American plum trees, that led to growing many commercial
varieties that are top producers even today, such as: Burbank
plum tree, Methley plum trees, Santa Rosa plum trees, and many
others. Burbank strongly felt that the native American cherry
trees that were extremely cold hardy should be intercrossed with
commercial cherries in order to stabilize and inbreed the factor
of cold hardiness. Burbank made numerous improvements on fruit
trees involving pear trees and apple trees.
Fruit trees have provided food to wildlife, bird, and animals
since the Biblical account of creation. Many birds are totally
dependant on seeds of fruits, buts, berries, and grapes. Even
when the pulpy, fleshy portions of fruits are gone, the seed
remains preserved for months and sometimes for years to provide
nourishment for wildlife birds and animals, and many of these
seed being undigested germinate to grow later into pear trees,
pecan trees, muscadine vines, or black raspberry bushes. The
fruit trees of the world not only furnish calories for energetic
living, but vitamins that are essential for growth are
transplanted by the sunshine photosynthesis processes into
forming fruits, berries, nuts, and grapes to insure a wonderful
healthy lifestyle will continue. These fruit trees synthesize
hormones and form the building blocks of proteins, fatty acids,
and carbohydrates that chemically evolve into antioxidants. These
antioxidants can help or suppress harmful body aging processes
that often end in heart attacks, stroke, faulty blood pressure,
and Alzheimer's disease. Fruit trees, berry plants, nut trees,
and grapevines are essential for man's continued ability to
maintain functional healthy bodies and to accumulate substantial
agricultural wealth.
William Bartram reported in his book, Travels, the finding of
fruit trees at a French plantation on an island at the Pearl
River. Bartram wrote that he viewed "manured fruit trees arrive
in this island to the utmost degree of perfection, as Pears,
Peaches, Figs, Grape Vines, Plumbs & C.; the last mention genus,
there is a native species that grows in this island, which
produces its large...crimson fruit...of a most enticing
appearance."
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Written by: Patrick Malcolm. Learn more about various trees
by visiting the author's website:
http://www.tytyga.com
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