Apple Index - "P"

Description: Fruit medium to large; Skin green with bright red stripes. Flesh firm and crunchy, moderately sweet. Flavor is reminiscent of Winesap.

History: This apple is a hybrid of Rome Beauty x Red June, created in 1915. 

Description from Pomiferous.com.

Description: The fruit is large, green to greenish yellow often with a blush, and very tart until fully ripe. It ripens mid-September and is a good keeper.

History: This apple originated on the farm of Monroe Parks in Gilmer County, Georgia. Howard Parks, a descendent of Monroe Parks, told Jim Lawson this: “Monroe Parks killed a wild goose in Gilbert County back in the mid 1800s and found a bunch of corn in its craw. He planted the corn to see if it was some unusual variety. In the row of corn a little apple sprout came up, and he let it grow. It turned out to be this apple.”

Description: Medium size, oblate; skin yellow blushed with red on the sunny side; flesh crisp, juicy, subacid. Ripe early September.

History: Leona Price of Taylorsville, North Carolina, has a tree over eighty years old, and others remember Paw apple trees elsewhere in Alexander County at one time. Tom Brown found this apple in 2000.

Description: Fruit large, roundish oblate but sometimes roundish oblong, often oblique; skin thick, tough, smooth, mostly mottled and striped with deep red, sometimes described as dull red; dots numerous, large, gray or yellow, often areolar. Flesh yellow, tender, juicy, coarse, subacid to almost sweet. Ripe late.

History: A large, showy, good-keeping apple of mediocre eating quality, first grown by Joseph Pennock before 1817 in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. In the South, Pennock was grown in the mountains and Piedmont.

Description: Fruit medium, roundish, often oblique; skin rough, pale greenish yellow shading to orangish on the sunny side and with some black and russet blotches; dots fairly numerous, medium size, whitish and blackish, areole. Flesh pale yellow, crisp and juicy, mild subacid. Ripe late September/October.

History: This northern apple, now very rare, was never grown in the south as far as we can determine. It is a lovely yellow apple that we keep because of its rarity and its delectable taste and texture.

Description: Medium size, oblate; skin whitish yellow often with a pinkish blush; flesh acid. Ripe August/September.

History: Fifty years ago, Elmer Knox’s father grafted him a Phifer apple tree from an old tree dating back to the 1800s. Tom Brown found this remaining tree at the old Phifer homeplace near Statesville, North Carolina.

Description: Fruit large, roundish or slightly oblate, often oblique; skin striped and shaded with dull red; dots numerous, large, whitish, areolar. Flesh yellowish, fine-grained, rather firm, tender, juicy, slightly aromatic, mild subacid. Ripe October and an excellent keeper.

History: "As I have said that the apple is the great fruit of all fruits, the Pilot Apple, a natural seedling of Nelson County, Virginia, is the great apple of all apples in our acquaintance. The tree is a magnificent grower, absolutely hardy. The fruit is large, handsomely formed and of the finest flavor, both for dessert and for cooking." -- Professor J. Dinwiddie of the University of Virginia in 1872

Description: Medium size, oblate; skin rough, whitish yellow with a light reddish blush on the sunny side; flesh firm, crisp, acid. Ripe late September.

History: Dave Hughes, age 90, had an old Pineapple tree at his home over forty years ago and identified this apple for Tom Brown.

Description: Fruit medium size, roundish conical; skin partly to mostly covered with bright to purplish red. Ripe for cooking mid-August, fully ripe September/October.

History: A tree of this variety was brought from Virginia to North Carolina at the end of the Civil War by a man named Alfred Harris Smith. The Smith family grew this apple first in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, then later in the community of Cornelius in Mecklenburg County.

Fruit medium size to large, oval, long; skin reddish orange, washed with a dull dark red, base color shows through in patches on the shaded face as well as at the ends.  

Description from Pomiferous.com.

Description: Fruit medium to above medium, roundish. White spots small, numerous. Skin red to dark red, often with netting of russet. Cavity normally russeted that spills over top, with thick, shorter stem. Basin shallow, can be faintly ribbed with mostly closed calyx.

History: Origin unknown.  Found by Tom Brown of Clemmons, North Carolina.

Description: Fruit above medium, roundish or slightly oblate, conical; skin tough, light greenish yellow with a bronzy or red blush or indistinct stripes on the sunny side; dots mostly submerged but a few are rather large with russet centers. Flesh yellowish, juicy, tender, aromatic, subacid to rather tart, browns quickly. Ripe July/August.

History: Discovered in 1884 by W. A. Sandefur, Sr., owner of a nursery in Robards, Kentucky, and sold by Kentucky nurseries from 1915 to 1925. The original tree grew on the farm of Polly Eades, two and a half miles east of Robards and was thought to be a seedling of Horse.

Description: Fruit medium, roundish; skin pale greenish yellow; dots numerous, pale with russet centers. Flesh juicy, barely sweet. Ripe late July/August.

History: Elwood Smathers, who died in 2001 at age ninety-five, said the original tree gew up in the woodpile at the abandoned homesite of Polly Cook at the head of Dutch Cove, near Canton, North Carolina.

Description: Fruit medium or smaller, roundish oblate; skin thick, tough, greenish gray, partly or entirely covered with brown, knobby russet, rarely with a faint red cheek on the sunny side; dots inconspicuous, greenish or whitish. Flesh yellowish, firm, crisp, fine-grained, juicy, subacid. Ripe late August/September.

History: This russet apple probably originated in Canada, but Downing (1878) says it may have been brought from France or Switzerland by early settlers. Although Pomme Gris was little grown in the South, it seems to be well adapted to much of the southern piedmont and mountains.

Description: Fruit medium to large, roundish, often oblique; skin bright red blushed with purple; dots numerous, large and small, grayish. Flesh firm, tart. Ripe late September and keeps extremely well.

History: Discovered by Frank Browning in 1962 near Wallingford, Kentucky. Later sold by Bountiful Ridge Nurseries, Princess Anne, Maryland.

Description: Fruit medium to large, shape variable but usually roundish oblate, often oblique with unequal sides; skin thick, greenish or brownish yellow mostly overspread with dull red that is often broken into shades, streaks, and dots and mostly covered with russet. Flesh yellowish, tender, often not very juicy, fine-grained, subacid. Ripe October and a good keeper.

History: Pryor’s Red was introduced into Illinois in 1823 by a Mr. Dennis, using scions brought from Virginia, and it became popular in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, as well as in most southern states.

Description: Fruit large to very large, roundish to roundish conical, sometimes oblong, often ribbed; skin thin, tough, smooth, pale green becoming yellow with whitish streaks near the stem, sometimes with a faint brownish red blush, often russeted in the South; dots conspicuous, whitish, more numerous near the calyx. Flesh white tinged with yellow, firm, not very juicy, very sweet. Ripe August.

History: Pumpkin Sweet originated before 1834 in the orchard of S. Lyman of Manchester, Connecticut. The name comes from the large size and yellow skin of the fruit. Bernice Lawson, wife of Georgia nurseryman Jim Lawson, preferred this apple for preserves and also to fry.