'Ribston Pippin' is a

triploid Polyploidy is a condition in which the cells of an organism have more than one pair of ( homologous) chromosomes. Most species whose cells have nuclei ( eukaryotes) are diploid, meaning they have two sets of chromosomes, where each set contain ...

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, ...

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 ...

s, also known by other names including 'Essex Pippin', 'Beautiful Pippin', 'Formosa', 'Glory of York', 'Ribstone', 'Rockhill's Russet', 'Travers', and 'Travers's Reinette'.

Origin

This apple was grown in 1708 from one of three apple pips sent from

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

to Sir Henry Goodricke of

Ribston Hall Ribston Hall is a privately owned 17th-century country mansion situated on the banks of the River Nidd, at Great Ribston, near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. The two-storey mansion presents an impress ...

Little Ribston Little Ribston is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. Little Ribston is located on the River Nidd, north of Wetherby and south-east of Knaresborough. The Ribston Pippin apple originated here when ...

near

Knaresborough Knaresborough ( ) is a market and spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, in North Yorkshire, England, on the River Nidd. It is east of Harrogate. History Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Chenares ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

; the original trunk did not die until 1835. It then sent up a new shoot and, on the same root, lived until 1928. Ribston

The 'Ribston Pippin' is one of the possible parents of '

Cox's Orange Pippin Cox's Orange Pippin, in Britain often referred to simply as Cox, is an apple cultivar first grown in 1825, at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, England, by the retired brewer and horticulturist Richard Cox. Though the parentage of the cultivar i ...

Description

The apple skin is a yellow, flushed orange, streaked red with russet at the base and apex. The yellow flesh is firm, fine-grained, and sweet with a

pear Pears are fruits produced and consumed around the world, growing on a tree and harvested in the Northern Hemisphere in late summer into October. The pear tree and shrub are a species of genus ''Pyrus'' , in the family Rosaceae, bearing the p ...

taste. Irregularly shaped and sometimes lopsided, the apple is usually round to conical in shape and flattened at the base with distinct ribbing. Weather conditions during ripening cause a marbling or water coring of the flesh, and in very hot weather, the fruit will ripen prematurely.

Culture

A vigorous tree with upright growth, its medium-sized ovate to oval-shaped leaves are a deep green color and distinctly folded with sharp, regular, and shallow serrations. The surface of the leaf is smooth and dull with a heavy pubescence. It is very slow to begin bearing, and the proper pollinators will increase the fruitfulness. ' Lord Lambourne' has been recommended for a pollinator, as well as '

Adam's Pearmain Adams Pearmain, also called Adam's Parmane, is a cultivar of apple. It was introduced to the Horticultural Society of London in 1826 by Robert Adams, under the name Norfolk Pippin. The fruit is large, varying from two and a half inches to three ...

', ' James Grieve', and '

Egremont Russet The Egremont Russet is a cultivar of dessert apple, of the russet type. It has a rich, nutty flavour and crisp, firm and fairly juicy flesh. It was first recorded in 1872, and is believed to have been raised by the Earl of Egremont at Petworth ...

'. 'Ribston Pippin' has one of the highest

vitamin C Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

contents; 30 mg/100g.

In literature

On the tree The apple appears in a verse by

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

called "The False Heart":

I said to Heart, "How goes it?" Heart replied: "Right as a Ribstone Pippin!" But it lied.

The apple appears in

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

's ''

The Return of the Native ''The Return of the Native'' is Thomas Hardy's sixth published novel. It first appeared in the magazine ''Belgravia'', a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly installments from January to December 1878. Be ...

'' in the second book, chapter two: "Now a few russets, Tamsin. He used to like those as well as ribstones." In the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

story "

The Adventure of Black Peter "The Adventure of Black Peter" is a Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle. This tale is in the collection ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes''. It was originally published in ''Collier's'' (US) in February 1904 and in ''The Strand Magazine' ...

" in ''

The Return of Sherlock Holmes ''The Return of Sherlock Holmes'' is a 1905 collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903–1904, by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories were published in the '' Strand Magazine'' in Britain and ''Collier's'' i ...

'' by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

an incidental character is described as "a little Ribston pippin of a man, with ruddy cheeks and fluffy side-whiskers". In ''

The Pickwick Papers ''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to s ...

'' by

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

a character is described as a "little hard-headed, Ribston pippin-faced man." Later in the novel a clerk "peeled and ate three Ribston pippins..." In the story "Thoughts about People" in Dickens' ''

Sketches by Boz ''Sketches by "Boz," Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People'' (commonly known as ''Sketches by Boz'') is a collection of short pieces Charles Dickens originally published in various newspapers and other periodicals between 1833 and ...

'' , a London apprentice is described as having "a watch about the size and shape of a reasonable Ribston pippin..." Irish writer Helen Wykham's first novel was titled ''Ribstone Pippins'' and had Belloc's poem as its epigraph. In '' A Month in the Country'' by

J. L. Carr Joseph Lloyd Carr (20 May 1912 – 26 February 1994), who called himself "Jim" or "James", was an English novelist, publisher, teacher and eccentric. Biography Carr was born in Carlton Miniott in the North Riding of Yorkshire, next to Thirsk ...

, a character says, "I've brought you a bag of apples. They're Ribston Pippins; they do well up here; I remember you saying you liked a firm apple." Ribston Pippins also make an appearance in the Scottish novel, "The Keys of the Kingdom" by A. J. Cronin: "The apple shed was soft with crepuscular twilight. They climbed the ladder to the loft where, space out on straw, not touching, were rows and rows of the Ribston pippins for which the garden was renowned... the taste was delicious. They watched each other eating. When her small teeth bit through the amber skin into he crisp, white flesh, little spurts of juice ran down her chin."

References

{{Apples, state=collapsed British apples Apple cultivars