Golden Delicious
'Golden Delicious' | |
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Species | Malus pumila |
Hybrid parentage | Chance seedling |
Cultivar | 'Golden Delicious' |
Origin | Clay County, West Virginia, United States, 1905 |
The Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple with a yellow color, not closely related to the Red Delicious apple.[1] According to the US Apple Association website it is one of the 15 most popular apple cultivars in the United States.[2]
Appearance and flavor
Golden Delicious is a large, yellowish-green skinned cultivar and very sweet to the taste. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is a favorite for salads, apple sauce, and apple butter.
History
![](../I/m/Starr_070730-7802_Malus_pumila.jpg)
This cultivar is a chance seedling possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden[3][4] and Golden Reinette.[5] The original tree was found on the Mullins' family farm in Clay County, West Virginia, United States and was locally known as Mullin's Yellow Seedling and Annit apple. Anderson Mullins sold the tree and propagation rights to Stark Brothers Nurseries for $5000, which first marketed it as a companion of their Red Delicious in 1914.[6]
In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the Golden delicious apple.[7] It had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.
Cultural references
The Golden Delicious was designated the official state fruit of West Virginia by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1995.[8] Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.
In 2013 the United States Postal Service issued a set of four 33¢ stamps commemorating apples, including the 'Golden Delicious' as well as 'Baldwin', 'Northern Spy', and 'Granny Smith'.[9]
Season
![](../I/m/GoldenDeliciousApple.jpg)
Harvested from autumn through winter.
Other West Virginia apples
West Virginia is the originator of many vegetable and fruit crops, including the apples Grimes Golden, and the Guyandotte, which is believed extinct.
Descendent cultivars
- Akita Gold (Golden Delicious × Fuji)[10]
- Arlet (Golden Delicious × Idared)
- Bohemia (Lord Lambourne × Golden Delicious)
- Candel (Jonathan × Golden Delicious)
- Cameo (Golden Delicious × Red Delicious)
- Caudle (Golden Delicious × Red Delicious)
- Champion (Golden Delicious × Cox Orange)
- Chantecler (Golden Delicious × Reinette Clochard)
- Cripps Pink (marketed as Pink Lady; Golden Delicious × Lady Williams (apple))[11]
- Delbarestivale (Golden Delicious × Stark Jonagrimes)
- Elstar (Ingrid Marie × Golden Delicious)
- Firm Gold (Starkspur Golden Delicious, U.S. PP 2024 × Starkrimson Red Delicious, U.S. PP 1565) [12]
- Gala (Kidds Orange × Golden Delicious)
- Ginger Gold (Albemarle Pippin × Golden Delicious)
- Goldspur a Golden Delicious-like cultivar from Holland which is spur bearing
- Iduna (Golden Delicious × Glockenapfel)
- Jonagold (Golden Delicious × Jonathan)
- Lucky Rose Golden A patented Golden Delicious mutant [13]
- Pinova (Clivia × Golden Delicious)
- Maigold (Fraurotacher × Golden Delicious)
- Mutsu (apple) (Indo apple × Golden Delicious)
- Opal (apple) (Topaz × Golden Delicious)
- Rubinette (Golden Delicious × Cox Orange)
- Sekai Ichi (Golden Delicious × Red Delicious)
- Spigold (Northern Spy x Golden Delicious)
- Sundowner (Golden Delicious × Lady Williams)
- Tentation delblush (Grifer (Blushing Golden) × Golden Delicious)
References
- ↑ Dominique A.M. Noiton and Peter A. Alspach (September 1996) "Founding Clones, Inbreeding, Coancestry, and Status Number of Modern Apple Cultivars", Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 121:773-782
- ↑ Apple varieties by US Apple Association
- ↑ "Dunbar Man 'Discoverer' of Golden Delicious Apple". Charleston Daily Mail. October 18, 1962. Archived from the original on 2008-05-28. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
He is J. M. Mullins, now a man in his 87th year and living in Dunbar, though he spent his lifetime until recent years in Clay County.
- ↑ (West Virginia Div. of Culture and History)
- ↑ Mass, V. 1970. Golden Delicious. pp. 69-85. In North American apples: varieties, rootstocks, outlook. Michigan State Univ. Press, East Lansing.
- ↑ Higgins, Adrian (August 5, 2005). "Why the Red Delicious No Longer Is. Decades of Makeovers Alter Apple to Its Core". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
When Stark's successors, in a similar stunt, found and named the Golden Delicious growing in West Virginia in 1914, the Delicious became Red Delicious.
- ↑ An Italian-led international research consortium decodes the apple genome AlphaGallileo August 29, 2010, Retrieved August 29, 2010
- ↑ Golden Delicious: State Fruit of West Virginia Archived 2008-10-07 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ art by Derry Noyes and John Burgoyne (January 17, 2013), Postal Service Issues Apples Postcard Stamps; Release No. 13-004, retrieved 23 December 2015
- ↑ http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP08354.html
- ↑ Pink Lady v the British apple, BBC News, 21 October 2013
- ↑ http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP04166.html
- ↑ http://www.freepatentsonline.com/PP09707.pdf
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Golden Delicious. |
- Overview of various apple cultivars
- A cook's overview of various apple cultivars
- Golden Delicious apple, in What Am I Eating? A Food Dictionary
- (in French) Golden Delicious (fr.wikipedia.org)