'Discovery' is an early season dessert

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

. One of its parents was the '

Worcester Pearmain 'Worcester Pearmain' is an early season English cultivar of domesticated apple, that was developed in Worcester, England, by a Mr. Hale of Swanpool in 1874.

', with the pollinator ' Beauty of Bath'.Morgan, J. & Richards, A. (Illus. Dowle, E.) (2002), ''The New Book of Apples'',

History

'Discovery' was first introduced to the market by the

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

nurseryman Jack Matthews. In around 1949, George Dummer, a fruit farm worker from Blacksmiths Corner, Langham, Essex, raised several apple seedlings from an open-pollinated 'Worcester Pearmain'.Morgan & Richards, 2002, p. 201Ketch, D. ''et al'', ''The Common Ground Book of Orchards'', London: Common Ground, 2000, p.108 He decided to transplant the best of the apples into his front garden, although the young tree was left unplanted and exposed to frost, wrapped only in sacking, for several months due to a family accident.Starkey, S. ''Discovering the Discovery apple'', ''The Nottingham Post'', 6-09-14Morgan & Richards, 2002, p. 201 The tree survived and later came to the attention of Matthews, who took grafts and developed it (initially under the names 'Dummer's Pippin' and 'Thurston August') before releasing it to commerce under the name 'Discovery' in 1962. By the 1980s it had become the main early variety in the UK, though became rarer in later years as imports supplanted early apples in the market.

Characteristics

The fruits are typically similar in appearance to its parent 'Worcester Pearmain', being small-medium in size, with small patches of yellow and largely flushed with crimson, sometimes completely covering the fruit, but tend to be slightly flatter. The flesh (and juice) of some fruit may be pinkish. The tree is a mid-season flowering variety; as with the pollinator 'Beauty of Bath', the fruits mature quickly, by August. Unlike many early apples, the fruits remain on the tree long enough to ensure ripening. Although most references state that this is an early producing tree, the best fruits can be harvested later in the year: from late August to October the fruits become deep pinkish-red and the flesh is also pink. It has excellent flavour and is a good eater and good cooker. Under good conditions the apples, when fresh, have a sweet, lightly acidic taste with a slight strawberry flavour. They generally have good keeping qualities. D. G. Hessayon, (1995), ''The Fruit Expert'', 2nd ed., *Sugar 11.8 % *Acidity (titratable acid as malic) 0.67 % *Vitamin C 10-20 mg/ 100 gram *Density 0.81

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Discovery (Apple) British apples Apple cultivars