Orange: The New World

The orange arrived in the New World with Columbus, who took seeds of both kinds of orange (and of lemon, citron, and lime) to Haiti on his second voyage in 1493. The climate of the Caribbean proved ideal, as did that of the adjacent mainland. It is possible that in 1509 an early Spanish settlement in Darien (Panama) had oranges. More certainly, at some time before 1565 (when the first permanent Spanish colony in Florida, San Agostino, was established), early settlers planted oranges and started what was to be the enormous Florida citrus industry. The rival California industry did not begin until 1739, when missionaries began to grow oranges in lower California (the part now in Mexico). The first oranges in the northern (now USA) part arrived 28 years later.