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It turns out that Richard Mabey is a fabulous antidote to the Koch brothers and other ring-wing billionaires in Dark Money and economics in Thorstein Veblen. I thought Mabey’s The Cabaret of Plants would be one long sustained examination of things plant but it turns out to be individual chapters focusing on a particular plant or some aspect of plantish-ness. This format makes it prime before bed reading. Most of the chapters are a near perfect length to read before my brain completely shuts down and I read the same sentence over and over and still have no idea what it says.
While Washington, D.C. and Japan have cherry blossoms, Minneapolis has apple blossoms and they are in peak bloom right now. The city has planted loads of dark pink, light pink and white ornamental crabapples throughout the parks over the years and when they are all in bloom, gosh, is it ever gorgeous. And because they are so pretty, people have also planted them in their own yards. So currently you can’t go two blocks without seeing at least a couple of these trees.
In my own garden I have fruiting apple trees and a fruiting crabapple that are all in bloom too. The blossoms are slightly different than the ornamental trees, but just as beautiful in my opinion. So cherry blossoms are great, but I have a special place in my heart for apple blossoms.Serendipitously the other night I read a chapter in Mabey’s book about apples. Genetic testing has allowed researchers to trace apple trees to their origination point: Tien Shan, China. From there scientists theorize that apples were assisted in their spread around the world first by Chinese brown bears and horses and then by people. We’re talking 7,000 years ago here.
Apples do not grow true from seed, meaning apple seeds do not grow into trees that are just like the parent tree. In order to have an orchard of honeycrisps, all the trees have to have been grafted onto the rootstock of another apple tree. It is guessed that the first apple tree was grafted about 4,000 years ago. Pretty cool, huh?
How many varieties of apples would you guess there are in the world? The second half of the nineteenth century was the zenith of apple diversity and it is estimated there were 20,000 named varieties worldwide with 6,000 of those in Britain alone.
Apple evolution of course continues. It seems nearly every few years the University of Minnesota alone is introducing a new apple variety. Just when I could get my own honeycrisp tree they have moved on to tango and zestar.
Mass cultivation of apples has shrunk the range of varieties, but the apple trees themselves don’t care. Toss a core out somewhere and if it sprouts, the resulting tree will be something new and different. Such independence and refusal to conform on the part of apple trees makes me love them even more.
Interesting, Stefanie–pass the apple pie, please.
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booksandbuttons, apple pie is the best. No pumpkin pie. No cherry pie. Heck pie is awesome 🙂
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All the way from Tien Shan, China to the New World! Sometimes the sheer miracle of how nature transpired to offer us all her bounties baffles me! Awesome! I agree with you…the independence and refusal to conform just made them my favorite too!
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cirtnecce, isn’t it amazing how plants evolve and moved around the world? They don’t need to be able to walk, the four and two-legged animals take care of it for them 🙂
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We’ve learned quite a bit about apple trees living in the Pacific Northwest. The number of varieties boggles the mind! I love your last line, “Such independence and refusal to conform … makes me love them even more.” I can say that about so many things and people in my life!
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bikurgurl, heh, can say that too. Keeps things interesting doesn’t it? 🙂
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Always! I love the learning 🙂
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In the UK all of the National trust houses, palaces and castles seem to be replanting ancient orchards with heritage varieties in an attempt to stop them from dying out. For some reason the original trees are long gone so it’s a great project to bring them back again. The choice of apple types in supermarkets is very limited at the moment.
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piningforthewest, that is wonderful! What will happen with all the fruit once they start producing do you know? Apple varieties are limited here too at the moment. It’s not apple season any longer and all the stored apples are at the end of their availability unless we want to buy from New Zealand or Chile which we don’t because of the fossil fuels used to ship them all that way. So for a little while we will be apple-less but then summer fruits will soon be available 🙂
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I’m not sure what they do with all the apples, it probably depends where they are, possibly some are made into chutney for sale in their shops. I admit to buying Mac Red apples from Canada and the US as they’re my favourite and they aren’t grown in the UK. Otherwise my carbon footprint is teeny – I think.
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I have a local heritage variety in my back garden. Apparently it’s an eighteenth century variety cooking apple and an excellent keeper. It’s still only a wee stick of a thing but I have high hopes for it. Apple trees make me think of Anne Shirley.
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