Physical Features
Tree Size: Medium.
Tree Characteristics: Round-topped, slightly drooping habit with dense, dark green foliage. Fruit position is intermediate.
Fruit Size: Large.
Fruit Color: Deep orange.

Sicko Department
Ease of Peeling: Excellent.
Seeds: Usually none.
Holds on Tree: Fair to good.
Flavor and Juiciness: Rich flavor. Moderately juicy.

Described as the "standard eating orange," the Washington navel is by far the most commercially eaten orange. The Washington Navel was taken from Brazil to California in 1873, and now trees of this type mainly reside in Northern California. These poor trees are forced to give up their fruit every year without fail. Oranges are painfully ripped from their branches, often pulling away twigs and leaves with the fruit.
"It's horrible," a tall, dense tree said. "You'd think that the workers would hear the screams of agony from both mother and child. There's so many of us. So very many of us?there is nothing worse than the first scream of terror that heralds the beginning of harvesting season." With this, the tree started to shake uncontrollably.
Another Washington Navel tree, this one a smaller and more bedraggled type, claimed, "All we want is to return to our Brazilian home. At home we were part of a natural ecosystem. Our children would live happy and carefree lives hanging from our branches and swaying in the wind. There were monkeys that would eat our fruit, but they always chose those oranges that were near death. Our oranges were allowed to fall to the ground to feed other tropical animals and to spread our seeds. It was the natural rhythm of things."
From the Washington Navel orange display all I could hear were the fading whispers from dying oranges begging me to "end it all now," and to "make it all not true," pleading "Mommy!" and softly crying in ecstasy 'The light! The light?!"