The Ben Davis, originally trademarked by the Stark Brothers Nursery as the "Black Ben Davis", is an

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

cultivar A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...

History

During the 19th century and early 20th century it was a popular commercial apple due to the ruggedness and keeping qualities of the fruit. As packing and transportation techniques improved the cultivar fell out of favor, replaced by others considered to have better flavor. It was known to fruit growers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a "mortgage lifter" because it was a reliable producer and the fruit would not drop from the trees until very late in the season. By mid-twentieth century it was mostly used as a process apple rather than a table apple, and orchards were replacing it with more popular varieties. The cultivar is now very rare to nonexistent in the commercial trade. It is still grown in parts of California, Maine, and Pennsylvania.

Related apples

The Ben Davis was crossbred with the 'McIntosh' to create the Cortland, which has been a very successful pie apple. Similar cultivars known as Gano or Black Ben Davis appeared in parts of the American South (notably

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

) in the 1880s. They are said to be either seedlings of, or identical to the original Ben Davis, but the exact relationship is unknown.

References

External links

Practically Edible Food Encyclopedia

{{Apples, state=collapsed Apple cultivars American apples