Sunday, August 9, 2026

Question: Nearly all of the world’s best-selling avocados trace back to a single tree grown in the 1920s by a Southern California mail carrier. The variety carries his last name. What is it?

Answer: The Hass avocado. Rudolph Hass, a mail carrier in La Habra Heights, grew an unusually creamy avocado variety and received U.S. Plant Patent No. 139 for it in 1935, the first patent issued for an avocado tree. Millions of Hass avocados worldwide trace back to his single tree, which lived until 2002.