'Discovery' is an early season dessert

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, ...

. 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.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 of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

nurseryman Jack Matthews. In around 1949, George Dummer, a fruit farm worker from Blacksmiths Corner,

Langham, Essex Langham is a small village in the north east of Essex, England. History There is little evidence of pre-Roman occupation of what is now Langham, but the Romans built a villa at the north end of the village close to the River Stour and the Roma ...

, 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 supposed 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 David Gerald Hessayon OBE (born 1928) is a British author and botanist of Cypriot descent who is known for a best-selling series of paperback gardening manuals known as the "Expert Guides" under his title Dr. D. G. Hessayon. The series started ...

, (1995), ''The Fruit Expert'', 2nd ed.,

References

British apples Apple cultivars {{apple-fruit-stub