Jonathan (apple)

Infobox Cultivar | name ="Malus domestica" 'Jonathan'

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image_width = 250px
ancestry = 'Esopus Spitzenburh'
cultivar = 'Jonathan'
origin = flagicon|United States Woodstock, New York, 1826

The Jonathan apple is a medium-sized apple, sweet and full of acidity, with a tough but smooth skin. It is closely related to the Esopus Spitzenburg apple.

The original apple bearing the name "Jonathan" which has continued to be sold in nurseries and grocery stores was developed by Rachel Negus Higley. According to "The Higleys and their ancestry" by Mary Coffin Johnson (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1896), Mrs. Higley gathered seeds from the local cider mill in Connecticut before the family made their journey to the wilds of Ohio in 1804 where she planted them. She continued to carefully cultivate her orchard and named the resulting variety after her husband, Jonathan Higley.Fact|date=February 2008

The Jonathan apple is believed by some to have originated from an Esopus Spitzenburg seedling in 1826 from the farm of Philip Rick in Woodstock, Ulster County, New York. Although it may have originally been called the "Rick apple," it was soon renamed by Judge Buel, President of Albany Horticultural Society, after Jonathan Hasbrouck, who discovered the apple and brought it to Buel's attention. [ [http://www.environment.nau.edu/food/Regis-Tree/Regis-Tree_Fruit_and_Nut_descriptions.pdf Southwest Regis-Tree] - Tree of Heirloom Perennial Species and Varieties]

See also

*Jonagold - a cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples.

References