Bing cherry

{{Short description|Edible fruit cultivar}} {{Infobox cultivar | name = Bing cherry | image = Bing Cherries (USDA ARS).jpg | image_caption = Bing cherry fruits | genus = ''Prunus'' | species = ''Prunus avium'' | hybrid = Black Republican cherry × Royal Ann cherry | cultivar = Bing | breeder = Seth Lewelling and Ah Bing | origin = Milwaukie, Oregon, USA }}

'''Bing''' is a cultivar of the wild or sweet cherry (''Prunus avium'') that originated in the Pacific Northwest. The Bing is the most popular sweet cherry in the United States, making up 50% of Washington's nation-leading cherry crop.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://treefruit.wsu.edu/web-article/cherry-varieties/ |title=Varieties – Cherry | WSU Tree Fruit | Washington State University }}</ref> It is also a major cultivar in British Columbia, Canada.<ref name=OregonProgress/>

== History == The cultivar was derived from an open pollination cross between maternal parent Black Republican and paternal parent Royal Ann (also known as 'Napoleon') in 1875 in Milwaukie, Oregon, by horticulturist Seth Lewelling and his Chinese ranch foreman Sit Ah Bing, for whom the cultivar is named.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ziedrich |first1=Linda |title=First Fruits: The Lewellings and the Birth of the West Coast Fruit Industry |date=2025 |publisher=Oregon State University Press |location=Corvallis, Oregon |isbn=978-1-962645-30-0 |page=202}}</ref><ref name=OregonProgress>Peg Herring, [http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/fall-2009/cherries Bing cherries are an American favorite. But who was Bing?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720030130/http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/fall-2009/cherries |date=2011-07-20 }}, ''Oregon Progress'', Oregon State University Agricultural Experiment Station, Fall 2009.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Rosyara|first1=Umesh R.|last2=Sebolt|first2=Audrey M.|last3=Peace|first3=Cameron|last4=Iezzoni|first4=Amy F.|date=2014-03-01|title=Identification of the Paternal Parent of 'Bing' Sweet Cherry and Confirmation of Descendants Using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Markers|url=https://journals.ashs.org/jashs/view/journals/jashs/139/2/article-p148.xml|journal=Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science|language=en-US|volume=139|issue=2|pages=148–156|doi=10.21273/JASHS.139.2.148|issn=2327-9788|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Ah Bing was born in China about 1846.<ref>Ziedrich 2025, p. 202</ref> He worked on Seth Lewelling's farm in Milwaukie for about 16 years. He went back to China about 1889.<ref>Ziedrich 2025, p. 205</ref> Due to the restrictions of the Scott Act, he could not return to the United States.<ref>Ziedrich 2025, p. 204-205</ref>

In a Federal Writers' Project interview of 1939, Seth Lewelling's stepdaughter, Florence Olson, explained that Lewelling and Bing were working alternate rows in the orchard when they found a seedling tree with superior fruit. Florence said Lewelling named it for Bing because the cherries were big, as Bing was, and because it was in Bing's row.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ledding |first1=Florence Olson |title=Interview by Sara B. Wrenn |journal=Library of Congress Folklore Project |date=January 30, 1939 |volume=Life Histories, 1936-39}}</ref>

The Bing cherry won first premium at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.<ref>Ziedrich 2025, p. 205</ref> The cherry was little appreciated, however, until about a decade later. By 1905, according to the horticulturist H. M. Williamson, it was "fast supplanting its parent, the Black Republican," largely because of its larger size.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williamson |first1=H. M. |title=Henderson Luelling and Seth Lewelling, Pioneers of Horticulture in Oregon |journal=Eighth Biennial Report of the Board of Horticulture of the State of Oregon |date=1905 |pages=103-106}}</ref>

==Health== Bing cherries are high in antioxidants.<ref>[https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2008/mar/fruit "A Daily Dose of Antioxidants?" in ''Agricultural Research'', March 2008.]</ref> A study by the United States Department of Agriculture suggests that fresh Bing cherries may help sufferers of arthritis and gout.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://agresearchmag.ars.usda.gov/2004/may/cherry|title=Fresh Cherries May Help Arthritis Sufferers|last=Wood|first=Marcia|work=Agricultural Research Magazine|publisher=USDA|date=2004|access-date=16 November 2020|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040609082036/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/may04/cherry0504.htm|archive-date=2004-06-09}}</ref> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that these claims are unproven.<ref>[https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/ComplianceEnforcement/ucm081724.htm List of Firms Receiving Warning Letters Regarding Cherry and other Fruit-Based Products with Disease Claims in Labeling] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100310015119/https://www.fda.gov/Food/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/ComplianceEnforcement/ucm081724.htm |date=March 10, 2010 }}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|1}}

==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20070427213235/http://www.uga.edu/fruit/cherry.html All about cherries]

Category:Cherry cultivars Category:Agriculture in Oregon Category:1875 establishments in Oregon