06/19/2024
The UK is home to many varieties of apples. But this ancestor of modern apples was lost – until some determined "apple detectives" set out to find it.
In the family tree of British apples, there have long been some prominent holes. It's the equivalent of a great-grandfather whose name has been forgotten. He's there in all the old photographs, staring out at you. But who is he?
The DNA of some apple varieties, for instance, shows that they are descended from a lost tree, one that must have existed, but whose identity is unknown. Scientists called this "ghost apple", a parent of varieties like Royal Jubilee and Hormead's Pearmain, Unknown Founder 8.
DNA is no longer the domain solely of researchers, however. Apple fanatics across the UK are now taking samples from very old apple trees in hopes of learning more about antique varieties, and perhaps making some surprising discoveries.
Most apples are grafts, or clones, of trees that grew long ago, so these old trees may be varieties you can't buy anymore, as traditional favourites have lost out to modern industrial crops. For anyone interested, in the spring, you can pick a few bright green new leaves from an ancient tree in your back garden, and send them off to a laboratory. If someone's sent in a sample before that's been confidently identified as a particular variety, you'll get a match.
When John Teiser, a Hereford-based apple maven, lays this all out for me, leaning on a paddock gate in an orchard, I can tell he's tickled to bits. Just last week, Teiser got an email from his friend Ainsleigh Rice, part of the Marcher Apple Network in the Welsh Marches. She had some big news for him: Unknown Founder 8 is unknown no more. They got a match for its DNA from a tree in Gloucestershire.
The identification of Unknown Founder 8 is just one of the discoveries people are making as they bring British apples into the DNA age, making it easier to identify and preserve what's left. It's a heady time for apple enthusiasts like Teiser. I can hear the excitement in his voice.
Right in front of us, in fact, is a potential source for more surprises. In this paddock and the next one, surrounded by busily munching sheep, there are more than 150 different types of cider apple tree. They were all made by taking grafts from a now-decrepit orchard planted nearly a century ago by Bulmer's, the cider maker. Teiser manages this collection under an agreement with the charitable trust that runs the Museum of Cider, a short drive away through tiny country lanes on the outskirts of Hereford, close to the border between England and Wales.
