The GEM variety arose from a mass planting of seedlings planted in the late 1980s by the University of California’s avocado breeding program. This selection is a seedling of the Gwen variety and Gwen itself is a grand child of Hass. GEM was named after the initials of researcher Grey E. Martin.
![GEM avocado lineage](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/f153ec_96a5aee64cd0405e8d01ebe4d0160e9e~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_499,h_550,al_c,q_85,enc_auto/f153ec_96a5aee64cd0405e8d01ebe4d0160e9e~mv2.png)
Here are some of it's characteristic:
GEM fruits are produced on a compact tree. The fruit's skin color turns from green to a dark burgundy/black when ready to eat. The pear shaped fruits are typically interior in the tree, mostly in clusters and protected from the elements. The trees also are less prone to alternate bearing (heavy fruit production one year followed by few fruit the next year). GEM is a heavy producer like it's mother Gwen.
The harvest season for GEM is somewhat later than Hass in California, the fruit will hang on the tree into August and early September. In cooler places, like Ventura county, it can hang on the tree until October. GEM fruit has attractive look and high quality flesh that has captured the attention of commercial growers around the world.
UC Riverside has developed other avocado varieties before GEM like Gwen and Esther all were released in the early 1980s, SirPrize and Lamb Hass in the mid-1990s.
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