Citrus Banned on Rose Parade Floats?

Live plants and seeds adorning the beautiful floats t in the 127th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day will not include citrus, after California authorities imposed a quarantine that covers a 180-square mile zone in the San Gabriel Valley.

The quarantine, brought about by the discovery of the Huanglongbing disease, or HLB, covers the entire 5.5 mile route of the Rose Parade, agriculture journalist Todd Flichette wrote Tuesday on the Western Farmpress blog.

“When the disease Huanglongbing was discovered in nearly a dozen trees in nearby San Gabriel earlier this year, state officials drew up a quarantine map to restrict the movement of citrus materials in and out of a 180-square mile zone in the San Gabriel Valley,” Flichette said. “After looking at the maps drawn up by the state earlier this summer, I noticed this and began calling around to see how it might impact the famed parade. A natural place for me to turn was California Citrus Mutual, a trade organization heavily involved in issues surrounding HLB and the tiny pest that vectors the disease.”

Flichette wrote that CCM has reached out to parade coordinators and they agreed to enforce a no-citrus policy on floats in the parade. Staff from the Los Angeles County Department of Agriculture will be on hand to inspect the floats, he said.

Information from the California Department of Food and Agriculture says HLB and the pest that carries it – the Asian Citrus Psyllid or ACP – were discovered in San Gabriel County in July 2015. Twice before that, in 2009 and 2012, HLB was detected in two other areas within Los Angeles County.

Based on the quarantine map Flichette studied, he said both roads along the parade route – Orange Grove Blvd. and Colorado Blvd. – are within the HLB quarantine zone.

The Tournament of Roses executive committee has not officially released an advisory about the HLB quarantine and its impact on the Rose Parade.

For more information about the HLB threat, visit www.cdfa.ca.gov, or view the Plant Quarantine Manual for HLB-ACP at www.pi.cdfa.ca.gov/pqm/manual/pdf/420.pdf.