Graft

Several weeks ago I reflected and wrote everything I could possibly think about oranges. Somehow that didn’t satisfy my fascination. Ironically as I sat peeling a navel orange this morning, I puzzled what else could there possibly be to write about them. Without knowing what I was thinking, my Wife came up with something different. She is scheduled to give me an injection today. As we discussed it, she absentmindedly mentioned that she had learned to give injections in nursing school by practicing on oranges. But no, you’re not going to have to follow a discourse on injections, so relax.
I realized how little I really know about something that is one of my favorite treats. Although it is now an “in” color, I don’t even like the color orange even on Kabota tractors or race cars. My attraction has always been just the juicy succulent fruit of navel oranges and nothing else. I don’t even know how oranges are grown although I have heard that they grow on trees. And I tease a foreign born friend who wondered about spaghetti trees.
I decided to do a little homework on an appropriate computer site.
(http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-navel-orange.htm)
What a fascinating story and I quote from that site.
“The navel orange is actually the result of a single mutation which occurred on a plantation in Brazil in 1820. The mutation led to the formation of a conjoined twin enclosed within the rind of a seedless orange. Because the navel orange is seedless, it can only be propagated through cuttings. Technically, every navel orange comes from the same orange tree; the Brazilian orange which generated a spontaneous mutation hundreds of years ago. Orange farmers take cuttings from their navel orange trees and graft them onto fresh stock periodically to ensure that their orchards stay healthy, and also for the purpose of expansion.”
In other words, one “oddball” orange that was different from any other changed oranges forever. Every other navel orange tree is a graft from that original stock. Grafting is necessary for the orchards to stay healthy and then to expand. I think it is natural for me to want to reproduce myself, at least my good qualities. I need to avoid that temptation even though it does wonders for my aging ego. Reproductive efforts must be directed toward grafting into the perfect stock that is responsible for all good fruit. Thank you to wisegeek.com and the original Navel Orange.