| Surprise | |
|---|---|
 Watercolor of Surprise apple in cross-section, showing typical red-tinged flesh. By J. Marion Shull, 1938. | |
| Genus | Malus |
| Species | niedzwetskyana |
| Cultivar | 'Surprise' |
'Surprise' is a pink-fleshed apple that is the ancestor of many of the present-day pink/red-fleshed apples bred by American growers.
'Surprise' is a smallish, round apple with a dull pale green or whitish-yellow skin and very tart red-tinged flesh. It is believed to be a descendant of Malus niedzwetskyana , a deeply red-fleshed apple native to Siberia and the Caucasus. [1] Whereas other descendants of M. niedzwetskyana tend to have darkish-red flesh (such as a series of apples and crabapples developed by plant breeder Niels Ebbesen Hansen), Surprise and the cultivars based on it tend to have a brighter pinkish or light reddish flesh. [2] The red pigmentation of the flesh comes mainly from a class of flavonoids called anthocyanins.
Surprise began to circulate in Europe sometime before 1831, when it was reported growing in the London Horticultural Society Gardens. It was first brought to the United States by German immigrants to the Ohio Valley around 1840 and quickly intrigued plant breeders because of its unusually colored flesh. [2] The horticulturist and landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing and his brother Charles, a noted pomologist in his own right, had a tree of Surprise in their collection in Newburgh, New York. The Downings were not, in the end, very impressed with Surprise. In the 1890 edition of their book The Fruit and Fruit Trees of America, the Downings wrote it off as a "small, round, whitish yellow apple of little or no value, but admired by some for its singularity, the flesh being stained with red." [3]
As a teenager in the 1870s, the horticulturist Liberty Hyde Bailey grafted Surprise onto a tree in his father's orchard in South Haven, Michigan, using scion wood that had come from Charles Downing. Years later, in his 1928 book The Garden Lover, he wrote:
I set those scions, and for many a year made pilgrimage to the tree and opened the green fruits to be surprised again and again at the pink flesh 'stained with red' as the original The Fruit and Fruit Trees of America has it. [4]
As late as 1957, a single tree was said to be still standing on the site of the Bailey family orchard (which had since been replaced with a hospital).
Although Surprise turned out to be not well suited to Midwestern and Eastern growing conditions, it did much better when moved to the West Coast, with its long growing season featuring hot days and cool nights. The northern California horticulturist Albert Etter had success with it as the cornerstone of a program to breed pink- and red-fleshed apple cultivars. By 1928, he was far enough along that he published a report in the Pacific Rural Press in which he described two open-pollinated descendants of Surprise that had pink or red flesh. One of these, Redflesh Winter Banana (so named for both its internal and its external appearance) is said to have been his personal favorite among a total of some 30 pink- and red-fleshed varieties that emerged from his breeding program. The second was a nameless variety that, from its description, might have been Pink Pearl, which became by far the best-known of this group and is still grown today. [5] Although not all of Etter's Surprise descendants were successful, the best of them shared a pronounced aromatic quality that appears to be linked to the anthocyanin pigmentation that gives the flesh its distinctive pinkish and reddish tones. Their mixed ancestry meant that their size, skin color, eating qualities, and ripening time varied greatly, as did their flesh color, which ranged from pale pink through rose to purplish red, occasionally mottled or marbled with white. [6]
In 1940, Etter set up a partnership with George Roeding Jr.'s California Nursery Company, one of the goals of which was to introduce some of Etter's Surprise-derived cultivars to the public. [5] Eventually Roeding settled on test seedling #39, which apparently impressed him with its looks (translucent skin, medium size, and tapered shape), its tart-sweet flavor, and its late-summer ripening date. [7] He secured U.S. plant patent 723 for it on Etter's behalf, christened it Pink Pearl, and featured it in his 1945 catalog. [6]
In 1973, apple fancier Ram Fishman settled near Etter's old experimental orchard and became intrigued by the pink-fleshed apples that could still be found among the old trees on that site. Over the course of a decade, Fishman managed to locate examples of what he believes are about half of Etter's pink-fleshed Surprise descendants. They were given new names since the old names could not be firmly determined and are marketed under the 'Rosetta' series title (alongside other Surprise-based cultivars) through his Greenmantle Nursery. [1] These Etter-Fishman cultivars include Pink Pearmain (probably the same as an apple known elsewhere as Pink Sparkle), Blush Rosette, Thornberry, Rubaiyat, Christmas Pink, Grenadine, and Pink Parfait. [6]
Other likely descendants of Surprise have been found elsewhere, such as varieties known as Aerlie's Red Flesh (also known as Airlie Red Flesh and Hidden Rose) and Bill's Red Flesh (also known as Scarlet Surprise), both found in abandoned orchards in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.
Surprise continues to be used in apple-breeding programs, and there is particular interest in the potential health benefits of this lineage. The anthocyanins that give red coloration to the skin of red apples and to the flesh of Surprise and its descendants possess antioxidant qualities. One group of scientists has been working since 1989 on breeding red-fleshed apples from Surprise for the Japanese market because most Japanese consumers peel their apples and thus lose the anthocyanins in the skin. [8]
The McIntosh, McIntosh Red, or colloquially the Mac is an apple cultivar, the national apple of Canada. The fruit has red and green skin, a tart flavour, and tender white flesh, which ripens in late September. In the 20th century it was the most popular cultivar in Eastern Canada and New England, and is considered an all-purpose apple, suitable both for cooking and eating raw. Apple Inc. employee Jef Raskin named the Macintosh line of personal computers after the fruit.
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Malus is a genus of about 30–55 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple – also known as the eating apple, cooking apple, or culinary apple. The other species are commonly known as crabapples, crab apples, crabtrees, or wild apples.
The 'Pink Pearl' apple is a pink-fleshed apple cultivar developed in 1944 by Albert Etter, a northern California breeder. It is a seedling of 'Surprise', another pink-fleshed apple that is believed to be a descendant of Malus niedzwetskyana.
The 'Roxbury Russet' is an apple cultivar, believed to be the oldest apple cultivar bred in the United States, having first been discovered and named in the mid-17th century in the former Town of Roxbury, part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony southwest of Boston. It is known by several other names including 'Boston Russet', 'Putnam Russet', and 'Sylvan Russet'.
The Victoria plum is a type of English plum. It has a yellow flesh with a red or mottled skin. This plum is a cultivar of the egg plum group.
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Niels Ebbesen Hansen was a Danish-American horticulturist, botanist, and agricultural explorer for the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of South Dakota. He searched the harsh environments of northern Scandinavia, Siberia, Manchuria, and the dry steppes of the Volga for plant stock that could flourish on the upper Great Plains.
The 'Laxton's Superb' is an apple cultivar that was developed in England in 1897. It is a cross breed between 'Wyken Pippin' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin'. It is a British apple with a green color and a dull red flush. It is a firm-textured dessert apple. The fruit is well known for its sweet and aromatic taste which is likened to the parent species it is derived from, the 'Cox's Orange Pippin'.
'Beauty of Bath' is a dessert apple cultivar.
Albert Etter (1872–1950) was an American plant breeder best known for his work on strawberry and apple varieties.
Malus niedzwetzkyana, or Niedzwetzky's apple, is a kind of apple native to certain parts of China, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan noted for its red-fleshed, red-skinned fruit and red flowers. Some botanists consider it a distinct species, while others have argued it is simply an unusual variety of the common apple, Malus pumila.
Applecrabs are various hybrids between crabapples and apples. They are bred for varying reasons, including disease resistance and use in cold climates because they are often hardier than apple trees and their fruit has the good eating qualities of apples.
Pristine apple is a hybrid cultivar of 'Co Op 10' x 'Camuzat' domesticated apples, which are descendants of the 'McIntosh' apple and the 'Starking Delicious'. This cultivar was developed and patented in the United States by the PRI disease resistant apple breeding program, in Indiana, United States in 1994, for its resistance to apple scab. It is susceptible to cedar-apple rust.
Åkerö, also called Akero or Okera, is an old apple cultivar of presumed Swedish origin, but possibly introduced from the Netherlands. It is a dessert apple with an aromatic flavor.
Melba is a Canadian cultivar of domesticated apple, which was developed by W. T. Macoun at the Central Experimental Farm, in Ottawa, Ontario by crossing a McIntosh with a Liveland Raspberry apple. It has a yellow skin washed with crimson colour. Flesh is extremely white, firm and crisp. Flavor is sweet with hints of tart. There is also a Red Melba mutation which is more red coloured, and is ripening later in season.
The 'Prima' apple is one of the modern disease resistant cultivars of domesticated apple which was bred by the PRI disease resistant apple breeding program in 1958. The disease resistance against apple scab has since been broken.
'Crimson Gold' is a modern cultivar of applecrab, meaning that it is a cross between a crabapple and a domesticated apple. It is a small apple.
'Splendour' or 'Splendor' or 'Starksplendor' is a modern cultivar of domesticated apple which was developed in New Zealand, and is regarded there as a popular commercial dessert apple. It has been said to be a cross between 'Red Dougherty' and 'Golden Delicious', but genetic analysis has not definitely characterized either of the parent cultivars, and records do not indicate known or suspected parents.
The California Nursery Company was established in Niles, California, and incorporated in 1884. It was responsible for introducing new hybrids created by such important West Coast breeders as Luther Burbank and Albert Etter.
