Orange blossom, the state flower of Florida

How to recognize it

The orange blossom grows on the sweet orange tree, an evergreen usually 8 to 30 feet tall with glossy, aromatic oval leaves up to about four inches long. The flowers are creamy to pure white, waxy and intensely fragrant, borne in clusters of up to six at the tips of the branches. Each has five thick petals curling back around a cluster of yellow-tipped stamens.

The flowers turn into the fruit people know. An orange tree often carries blossoms, small green fruit and ripe oranges at the same time.

A fruit from Asia

The orange is not native to Florida. The sweet orange is a hybrid of the mandarin and the pomelo that originated in China, and the USDA lists it as an introduced plant. Spanish explorers brought oranges to Florida in the 16th century, and some trees escaped into the wild and naturalized. The official symbol is the blossom of the cultivated sweet orange in general, not any particular variety.

Where to see it

The orange blossom season comes in spring, when the scent drifts across the groves and nearby towns of central and south Florida. Commercial citrus growing has been concentrated there since severe freezes, especially those of 1835 and 1894-95, wiped out most of the groves farther north. Orange trees are also common in home gardens in the same region.

A state built on citrus

When the Legislature chose the orange blossom in 1909, citrus was one of Florida’s most important industries, and it remained a pillar of the state’s economy through the 20th century. Florida went on to make orange juice its state beverage in 1967 and the orange its state fruit in 2005, and an orange appears on Florida license plates.

Since 2005, though, Florida’s citrus groves have been devastated by citrus greening, a bacterial disease spread by a tiny insect, the Asian citrus psyllid. Production has fallen steeply, and many groves have been abandoned or replaced. The orange blossom remains the state flower, a reminder of the groves that once defined Florida.

The state wildflower

Florida also has a state wildflower, chosen in 1991: the coreopsis, or tickseed. The law names the whole genus of these cheerful yellow, daisy-like flowers, noting that its species grow across the state and are widely planted along highways.