Tree Seed
Tree Seed
History Of Introduced Fruits Into America - Native American Fruit Trees And Hybrid Fruit Tree Improvements
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 frui…of a most enticing appearance."
About the Author
Patrick A. Malcolm, owner of TyTy Nursery, has an M.S. degree in Biochemistry and has cultivated fruit trees for over three decades.
What is the proper way to start a saucer magnolia tree seed?
I am starting with seeds and need to know how to take care of them.
you may need to scarify them before planting and you may not get a very good germination rate. When germinated, give them bright light, warm temperatures and ample water
Tree Seed
Opening 1000 Bird's nests (Tree seeds only)
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A Burio Tree Seed Collected from a Sample of Tropical Cloud Forest $39.99 David Liittschwager A Burio Tree Seed Collected from a Sample of Tropical Cloud Forest - Photographic Print |
Apple Trees and their History
Apple trees were the most popularly grown fruit tree in colonial America and practically every settlement farm and backyard gardener planted this easily grown fruit tree, or easier, the seed of the apple could be planted to establish a permanent food supply. Growing these apple tree products could be eaten fresh or could be dried and preserved in many different ways to eat at a later time. Historical instances on the existence of apple trees are documented from folklore, legends, stone images on carved tablets, petrified slices of apples on plates for tomb offerings, and overwhelming numbers of references from Hebrew Bible scriptures and innumerable writings from poetry, songs, literary publications, and many other surviving accounts of all civilizations in the ancient world. One of the earliest archeological evidences of apple tree fruit comes from the remains of excavations from Jericho, Jordan, that has been dated 6500 BC by radiochemical analysis of carbon atoms.
The petrified remains of apple slices that were found in a saucer of an ancient Mesopotamian tomb, the burial site of royalty dates back to 2500 BC and was uncovered in southern Iran. In the ancient historical accounts of the fruit of the apple tree, there appears to be an incomprehensible trail of evidence that no other fruit could match. The interest shown in apples by the Greek and Roman philosophers, poets, historians, and literary masters was even extended to Renaissance painters, royal chefs to the Tsars of Russia and too many other references to mention.
In colonial America, apple trees were grown and planted from seeds in orchards by William Blackstone at Boston, Massachusetts in the 1600's. Early documents on file at the National Library in Washington, DC suggest that all land owners in Massachusetts had begun growing apple trees by the 1640's.
William Bartram, the famous explorer and botanist, wrote in his book, Travels, "I observed, in a very thriving condition, two or three large apple trees" in 1773, while traveling near Mobile, Alabama. It is important to realize that these large apple trees found growing in Alabama in 1773 could very easily have been grown from the seed planted by Creek Indians. Those seed may have been obtained by the Indians from American colonists on the Eastern coast of the United States at a much earlier time or from French farmers who settles in areas of agricultural land grants north of Mobile. General Oglethorpe planned in 1733 to plant "various plants, subtropical and temperate, which might prove valuable for Georgian farms and orchards," according to William Bartram in his book Travels, published 40 years later. William Bartram's father, John Bartram, trip to "East Florida" (Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas) was, in part at least, an attempt to inventory the plant resources of England's new acquisition-after expelling the Spanish from East Florida.
Many modern botanists believe that the improved apple that we know today descended from the crabapple that is commonly interplanted with apple trees for cross pollination. Old documents record that fact "cultivated apples descended from crab-tree or wild apple-Pyrus malus." Wild crabapple tree seeds appeared on the list of collected seeds in the Plant List of 1783 of William Bartram and his father, John Bartram. In William Bartram's book, Travels in 1773, he "observed amongst them (fruit trees) the wild crab (Pyrus coronaria) in his explorations near Mobile, Alabama. Robert Prince established the first operating nursery in the American colonies at Flushing, New York, in the 1700's, where he offered apple trees for sale at his nursery that was visited by General George Washington, who later became the first President of the United States. President Thomas Jefferson was planting and growing apple trees at his fruit tree orchard in Monticello, Virginia, in the early 1800's.
The legendary Johnny Appleseed was responsible for the rapid development of the apple trees growing and planting when he established a nursery in the Midwest that sold both apple trees and seed to be planted for growing into trees in the 1800's. Over 2000 cultivars of apple trees are listed as being grown today, many of the trees resulting from the huge apple seed dispersion that was begun by the memorable ambition of Johnny Appleseed to entirely cover the landscape of America with the fruit of apple trees.
Over the centuries, apple trees became susceptible to many disease problems such as fire blight; however, Dr. C.S. Crandall from the University of Illinois performed several backcrosses that involved modern cultivars and the apple tree ancestor 'crabapple,' Malus floribunda. The wild crabapple contained an immunity factor within its genetic composition towards all major bacterial and fungal diseases of apple trees. In 1989, researchers from the pomology department at Cornell University extracted an immune fire blight gene from a nocturnal moth and transplanted it into an apple fruit, resulting in the total defeat of fire blight in that particular apple tree cultivar.
Fruiting of apple trees is perhaps the most troublesome characteristic experienced by an orchardist or a backyard fruit tree gardener. Most cultivars of apple trees require cross pollination of two separate varieties in order to set fruit on the tree.
It is necessary that the blossoms of the two apple tree flowers develop pollen at the same time, in order that fruit will be set, which can be a tricky problem to correct. The simplist solution to pollinate apple trees is to use the ancestor of the modern day apple cultivars, the crabapple, which sheds its pollen over a long period of time and easily overlaps the apple tree cultivar flowering period. Crabapple trees produce a fruit that is much smaller than the common apple, but it can be used in cooking in various ways, and it is loved by wildlife in the fall and winter when wildlife food is scarce for animals and birds. Crabapple trees are also valuable when used as flowering trees that begin blooming in early spring with huge clusters of pink, white, and even red blossoms. Several outstanding grafted Flowering Tree selections are available, such as: Brandywine, Red Perfection, Radiant, and Spring Snow.
Apple trees are easy to grow, and if a gardener purchases a large tree, he may experience fruit development even on the first year of planting and growing. The selection of the proper cultivar of grafted apple trees is extremely important, because even though the apple fruit can be grown in most areas of the United States, the trees require different amounts of chilling temperatures in order to flower. The interesting introduction of low chill cultivars from Israel makes it possible to experience apple growing and planting as far south as Florida. Certain popularly grown cultivars of apple trees in the United States today are: Arkansas Black, Gala, Granny Smith, Red Rome, Anna, Red Fuji, Yates, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Anna, Ein Shemer, and Golden Dorsett. Apples contain some mysterious quality that can preserve it from deterioration for centuries. Apple slices can be dried and kept delicious for long periods of time. This mysterious characteristic may be recognized by man's association of paradise being connected and related to Eve and Adam picking apples from a fruit tree growing in paradise for their eternal pleasure, that was planted by God and described as the tree of life at the fabled Garden of Eden. We see this fruit of paradise recurs in the history of many other ancient civilizations. A similar account that we read as children in the book of Genesis from the scriptures in the Hebrew Bible.
Perhaps this mysterious genetic quality of apples in preservation makes it so important as providing medical benefits backed up by that memorable proverb, "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." Experiments from researchers in California have shown that apple fruit is very rich in antioxidants, a biological compound that combats, stroke, heart disease, and many other health problems.
About the Author
Find tips about acacia baileyana and acacia cyanophylla at the Acacia Plant website.
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