Lue Gim Gong

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Lue Gim Gong

Lue Gim Gong (呂金功, pinyin: Lǚ Jīngōng) (1859 Canton, China - July 3, 1925 DeLand, Florida USA), was an immigrant from China and a horticulturalist. Known as "The Citrus Wizard," he is remembered for his contribution to the orange-growing industry in Florida.

1 Life
2 "Lue Gim Gong" orange
3 References
4 Further reading
5 External links

[edit] Life

Born in Canton, China to a family of farmers, Lue Gim Gong [1], was interested in America and the opportunities that lay across the Pacific Ocean. After his uncle returned from America when Lue was 12, the boy pleaded with his parents to let him return with his uncle to America. His parents agreed, giving him a bolt of silk to sell when he arrived. He lived in a heavily Chinese-populated area in San Francisco until the age 16 when he moved to North Adams, Massachusetts to work at a shoe factory. At this factory, Lue met Fannie Burlingame, who taught his Sunday School class. When she learned of his skill with plants, she asked him to live with the Burlingames to tend their greenhouse. She converted him to Christianity, and helped him become an American citizen in 1877.

Lue had been advised to move to a warmer climate due to his recent contraction of tuberculosis. Due to his conversion, he was unable to return to China. Fannie recommended a relocation to DeLand, Florida, where she and her sister owned land. Lue agreed, and in 1885, he was working once again, this time in orange groves.

Lue had learned some pollination techniques in China, with which he was able to develop an apple that ripened a month earlier than other varieties, and a tomato plant that grew in clusters. In Florida, he learned to cross pollinate citrus by watching bees. He produced a cold-tolerant grapefruit that was slower to drop, a grapefruit that grew singularly, rather than in clumps, on the branch and an aromatic variety.

Wooden Fish Songs, by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, is an historical novel based on Lue's life.

[edit] "Lue Gim Gong" orange

In 1888, Lue cross-pollinated the "Harts late" Valencia and "Mediterranean Sweet" orange varieties , which produced a fruit that was both sweet and frost-tolerant. Originally considered a hybrid, the "Lue Gim Gong" orange was later found to be a nucellar seedling of the "Valencia" variety[2], and is properly called the "'Lue Gim Gong Strain' of 'Valencia'". Distributed by Glen St. Mary Nurseries, the variety was awarded the Silver Wilder Medal by the American Pomological Society in 1911, the first such award for a citrus fruit. The "Lue Gim Gong" variety is still grown in Florida as of 2006, but is sold under the general name "Valencia."

[edit] References

"The Life of Lue Gim Gong." West Volusia Historical Society. Retrieved on October 25, 2006.
"Orange." from Fruits of warm climates by Julia F. Morton. Florida Flair Books, 1987. ISBN 0961018410. Retrieved on October 26, 2006.

[edit] Further reading

Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Wooden Fish Songs. Plume, 1996. ISBN 0-8070-6229-4
Virginia Aronson, Gift of the Unicorn: The Story of Lue Gim Gong, Florida's Citrus Wizard. Pineapple Press (FL), 2002. ISBN 1561642649