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Valencia Orange Identified by a grower from Valencia Spain as the same one grown in Spain, resulting in the naming of the variety, its true origin is unknown. The Azores have been suggested as one possibility and China as the other. The Valencia produced in California and Florida originated from a similar source. Thomas rivers an English nurseryman, imported from the Azores into English glass houses or orangeries which were special houses devoted to the growing of oranges under glass in England and parts of the Continent, He first catalogued it in 1865 under the name Excelsior. Rivers sold this variety about 1870 to S.B. Parsons, a Long Island nurseryman, who, in turn, transferred some of the trees to E.H. Hart of Federal Point, Fl. At about this time, 1870-72, A.B. Chapman, San Gabriel, CA. received the variety direct from Thomas Rivers. The tree was called "Hart's Late" or "Hart's Tardiff" in Florida and "Valencia Late" in California, but when it became evident that these varieties were the same, the name "Valencia" was adopted. The Valencia is of District value because it ripens late in the season after other varieties are off the market.
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