365 urban species. #267: Domestic Apple

[urbpan]

Photos by urbpan. Location Brookline Ave, Brookline.

Urban species #267: Domestic apple Malus x domestica

The ancestor of the domestic apple is a tree called Malus sieversii that grew wild in Kazakhstan, along the Silk Road. The fruit of the tree spread along trade routes until its origin was forgotten. It's genes mixed with other Malus species, such as M. sylvestris and M.orientalis, and the resulting hybrid M. domestica, was cultivated and distributed by the Romans. In recent years the ancestral home of the apple was rediscovered, to the delight of those researchers who hope to increase the biodiversity of the apple gene. Because so few varieties of apples are commercially grown, they are vulnerable to the kind of catastrophe that caused the Irish potato famine (a disaster that finally turned around when genes from the ancestral potatoes--from Peru--were introduced into the pool). In the United States, there are only about a half dozen varieties of apple available in most places, and each is genetically identical. Every red delicious apple came from a clone of a single parent tree, every Macintosh apple--and so on. The genetics of apples are such that, if a red delicious apple core is tossed out, it will not (probably) result in a tree that produces red delicious apples. The seeds are genetically unique and distinct from one another, and each one has the potential to grow into a tree that produces a wholly new and novel type of apple. Occasionally a person may encounter a wild domestic apple tree, growing where a core was discarded, but these are hard to distinguish from native crabapples and crabapple hybrids.

City planners, landscapers, and parks departments sometimes choose domestic apples in some of their planting. The reasons for this choice are mysterious to me, but the results cheer me. Discovering a tree in a city park with edible fruit is an unexpected joy. It's an artificial recreation of the experience our earliest primate ancestors must have enjoyed. Large, sweet, and edible fruit, there for the taking! There are many insects and fungi that also enjoy apples--usually a "wild" apple only affords a few bites that aren't scarred with black spots and maggot burrows.

This entry is heavily influenced by the writings of science journalist Michael Pollan, especially his great book The Botany of Desire.


That one looks tasty!



I used a long stick to knock it down--I caught it!


Sweet accomplishment!


Not-so-sweet apple.

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

Ha ha! You look like you've eaten a sloe! Those're so gross (for humans), do you have them there?

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

That looks like caterpillar, not maggot damage - coddling moth and gypsy moth are major problems for NE apple producers. The only true maggot that attacks apples (to my knowledge) is the Apple Maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella, a fruit fly.

Disease is not the only reason for introducing new genes into apples - by selecting strains that are resistant to various pests, apple production can be increased without the need for increased chemical usage. I doubt that there will be any resistant strains developed against the fruit attackers, which are drawn to the same characteristics humans like about apples. However, some of the pests that attack the tree itself may be targetable.

/gets off IPM/HPR soapbox. :)

[pipu.livejournal.com]

Here in apple-land we have a ton of varieties available! The orchard near our house must grow at least 40 different types.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

lolllll!! i love that last picture even better in large form. hilarious.

we will not reveal the location of two apple trees that grow tasty apples in our city. shhhh.

[bluelinegoddess.livejournal.com]

I spent 23 years of my life on Appletree Place. The house we had (naturally) had two apple trees in the backyard. Only one year were the apples edible.

You lucked out too - this time of year, all the apples would be filled with wasps at the old house. You'd be picking up apples so you could mow the lawn, and suddenly find yourself being divebombed by wasps.

[interfecta.livejournal.com]

What about heirloom varieties of apples? I'm confused. After all, we bred apples (and other domesticated plants) through the old fashioned, birds-and-bees method once upon a time, right?

I ask b/c I've been struggling with the urge to plant all native species in my (balcony) garden next year, vs. my original plan to use it as a kitchen garden, and I'd made my peace with the idea of planting heirloom veggies as a nod to biodiversity while still being able to get dinner from the garden. If heirlooms are also now propagated asexually, then I'll probably just stick with the (cheap+redily available) varieties I made friends with this year... though being able to keep the seeds next year would have been a big perk to using heirloom.

[sprrwhwk.livejournal.com]

There's no one clear definition of "heirloom" -- if you want plants propagated by the old-fashioned, birds-and-bees method you describe, the term you want to look for is "open-pollinated". Most heirloom varieties are open-pollinated. Since open-pollinated varieties are plants, they *can* be propagated asexually, but they don't have to be. Open-pollinated plants breed true (descendants will have approximately the same qualities as the parents), whereas the modern hybrids don't, so the hybrids *have* to be propagated asexually.

I suspect you can find a good source for open-pollinated heirloom seeds and plants local to the Boston area, but I don't know of any offhand. The Seed Savers' Exchange (http://www.seedsavers.org/), based in Iowa, is one of the canonical organizations dedicated to preserving heirloom plants, and they publish a catalog. I've personally had good luck with plants and seeds from Territorial Seed (http://www.territorial-seed.com), based out in Oregon, and they carry a wide selection of heirloom veggies.

(Heirloom fruit varieties seem harder to find. Google found me an article about an orchard in Vermont which specializes in heirloom apple varieties. I'm not sure how easy it would be to get ones you could plant yourself, however. The article's at http://www.theheartofnewengland.com/Heirloom-Apples.html)

Hope that helps.

(deleted and reposted to fix a few nits)

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

that site seems to indicate that grafting is required.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Well, it is if you want consistently good results. Believe it or not, apple genetics are a stupidly-complex crapshoot -- planting the core of a hella tasty apple will result in a tree whose fruit characteristics (in taste and texture, not in bug-resistance -- THAT inherits just fine, for some reason) are nearly random.

Johnny Appleseed did yeoman work, but most of the trees he planted gave fruit fit only for feeding pigs. However, most people chopped DOWN the bad-tasting random-seeded trees before 1900, so if you find a surviving one, it's likely tasty (because it's been selected).

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

i know, i read The Botany of Desire. before we move, i really want to steal a cutting from the yummy tree (not the one pictured above) in the park so that i can have delightful apples wherever i end up.

[cottonmanifesto.livejournal.com]

Also, from the text of the OP: Every red delicious apple came from a clone of a single parent tree, every Macintosh apple--and so on. The genetics of apples are such that, if a red delicious apple core is tossed out, it will not (probably) result in a tree that produces red delicious apples

Thanks, that was helpful

[interfecta.livejournal.com]

I'd considered Seed Savers but didn't really have anyone to turn to on their reputation; since I'd only stumbled on them on the Internet, I didn't really know whether they were actually a good source, or just looked like it online.

You needn't worry about a Boston-local source, though; I'm actually in central Virginia! There's another example of the disguising power of the internet. I'm also not going to be able to plant fruit of any sort for a while; my garden is a rooftop-and-fire-escape conglomeration without any soil of its own, and while I'm planting a few canes of native black raspberry for my family and the birds to share, I'm not brave enough to jump straight into container-growing fruit.

Thanks!

[turil.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend a place called FEDCO (http://www.fedcoseeds.com) for lots of info and good prices (it's a coop) on heirloom seeds and trees. They specialize in interesting apple varieties too. I was at a booth of theirs at the Common Ground Fair (in Maine) last weekend and they had a wonderful little apple called Chestnut that was just delicious.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

if you prefer peaches, there's trees growing in front of the dorms off mass off, just on the boston side of the river :)

say, you've been doing trees... does this:
http://perspicuityphotos.smugmug.com/gallery/1741816/1/97588740/Medium
seem familiar? i can't place it yet. we thought it might be a bush honeysuckle, but those have opposite type leaves, this is alternate. mmm.

whee, fall.

#

[interfecta.livejournal.com]

For the record, I'm 92% sure I've seen that growing wild myself, but I don't know what it is either.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

Looks like a honeysuckle to me, but I'm totally crap at identifying shrubs.

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

wish i knew too, apparently they're edible...

identifying invasive shrubs and trees is a PAIN. ugh.

mmm. wish i knew more about mushrooms too.

#

[harry-rar.livejournal.com]

Lots of apples! (http://www.webvalley.co.uk/brogdale/collectionapples.php)

[turil.livejournal.com]

Funny that you mention Botany of Desire. I had given it to my mom as a birthday gift a few years ago and then yesterday when I was visiting her I asked if I could borrow it. I think that I need a break from reading books that I need to read (career-wise) and that book seemed like the perfect fun (yet interesting) book for me right now.

Also, it seems like apple tree genetics are the norm in genetics - with each offspring being different than the two parents - rather than anything else. I mean we humans are quite different from our genetic parents, why aren't more plant species as different as humans and apples are?

The Omnivore's Dilemma

[eponabast.livejournal.com]

The Botany of Desire is one of my favorite books. I'm currently reading his newer book, the Omnivore's Dilemma and it's incredible. You should pick it up if you haven't read it already. His revelation of the pervasiveness of corn on the American diet is fantastically horrific.

[buboniclou.livejournal.com]

I love that book. I used it as a source when I did a paper on the domestication of Malus for an archaeology class. Thank you for posting this, it made my day--I just wish they planted them in the parks here! :(

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

Yeah, we're lucky to have a couple good ones nearby.

[weofodthignen]

Hmm, that reminds me I have never found "cooking apples" anywhere in the US. The bitter-tasting, large apples that bake up well that used to be one of the main options in England (and I confess I actually used to like eating them fresh, though it's supposed to be terribly bad for you). I should look harder--there's probably an official name for the type(s) and apples do manage to grow here in Silicon Valley, they just don't do as well as citrus and the farmers' market folks aren't bringing in as many varieties as they are of tomatoes and beans.

M