Parent Washington Navel Orange Tree
United StatesRiversideArlington Heights, Riverside
Riverside keeps its most famous tree in a tent. Since June 2019 the Parent Washington Navel Orange Tree has lived inside a 22-foot insect screen, put up to keep out citrus greening disease. The tree is about 150 years old. Eliza Tibbets planted it here in 1873, one of two young trees the US Department of Agriculture sent her. The variety itself had reached the department three years earlier, in 1870, from Bahia in Brazil. It is California Historical Landmark number 20 and City of Riverside Landmark number 15. It is not a museum piece. UC Riverside and the city's Parks Department look after it together, and in December 2025 the university reported harvest time at the tree, with the old orange in good health and still bearing. It stands on a small landmark plot at the corner of Magnolia and Arlington avenues, free to visit at any time. You see it through the screen now, which takes some getting used to: the photograph on this page was taken before the tent went up. The Chicago White Sox redwood in Low Park is about 400 metres away, an easy walk.
Magnolia Avenue at Arlington Avenue, Riverside, CaliforniaYou can recognise it by the 22-foot insect-screen tent it has stood inside since 2019, with an orange tree inside. It stands on a small landmark plot at the corner of Magnolia and Arlington avenues.
Free, in a small city landmark plot at the corner of Magnolia and Arlington avenues. Since June 2019 the tree is inside a 22 ft tall insect-screen tent to keep out citrus greening disease, so it is seen through the screen (Wikipedia, 2019). Maintained by UC Riverside and the City of Riverside Parks Department.
Riverside city street corner; public transport not checked.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.