THE DISCREPANCY // 075
Some shoppers remember Haas avocados. The cultivar name is Hass, after Rudolph Hass. University of California agricultural material also documents Haas appearing in produce departments, giving the alternative spelling a real printed trail.
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1935 / MOTHER TREE — A tiny patent date sits under a branching line. Follow the fruit to its first tree.
BEFORE THE REFERENCE
Recall a sticker, crate or sign before a spoken answer. Which spelling did the shop use, and was it printed by the grower or written locally? Preserve that source. A genuine retail label can carry the alternative without establishing that the cultivar’s registered name changed.
THE TRACE TO FOLLOW
The agricultural reference follows the name and its variations in use. Compare a specific package and its origin with the spelling you wrote first. The puzzle becomes more interesting when an object survives: who printed its name, and what older reference might they have followed?
Keep your first version
Record the detail before opening a reference. Keep the exact object, release or edition with your comparison. A first recollection and a later discovery can be followed as separate traces.
FOLLOW THE SOURCES
Compare the particular object, recording or documented account.
Reported recollections and discussion; a separate trail from the reference.