Was the Haas avocado really born in La Habra, California? Almost. This most popular of all avocado varieties was developed by postal carrier Rudolph Hass (rhymes with that ever-expanding thing you sit on) in a small grove at his home in La Habra Heights, just over the border into Los Angeles County. All of today’s Hass avocado trees descend from a single seedling he planted there in 1926. The mother tree finally succumbed to a root fungus and was cut down in 2002.