Lue Gim Gong - Legacy

Legacy

• Lue had learned some pollination techniques in China, with which he was able to develop an apple which 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 developed a cold-tolerant grapefruit that was slower to drop, and grapefruits which grew singularly, rather than in clumps, on the branch, as well as an aromatic variety.

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

• In 1888, Lue cross-pollinated the "Harts late" Valencia and "Mediterranean Sweet" orange varieties, which produced a fruit 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, which is properly called the "'Lue Gim Gong Strain". 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".