The apple detectives hunting for lost varieties

The UK is home to many varieties of apples, but some old types have been lost over time. A group of dedicated individuals, known as 'apple detectives', are on a mission to rediscover these forgotten varieties. In the family tree of British apples, there are significant gaps, much like having a great-grandfather whose name has been forgotten. You see him in old photographs, but you don't know who he is. Some apple varieties have DNA that indicates they are descended from a lost tree, referred to by scientists as a 'ghost apple'. This tree is the parent of several apple varieties, but its identity remains unknown. Now, apple enthusiasts across the UK are collecting samples from very old apple trees in hopes of learning more about these antique varieties and possibly making some surprising discoveries. Most apples are grafts, or clones, of trees that grew long ago, so these old trees may be varieties that are no longer available in the market. In the spring, you can pick a few bright green new leaves from an ancient tree in your garden and send them to a laboratory. If someone has previously sent in a sample that has been confidently identified as a particular variety, you will get a match. Some apples that were well-documented in 19th-century books have now become forgotten. When John Teiser, an apple expert based in Hereford, explains this to me while leaning on a paddock gate in an orchard, I can tell he is thrilled. Just last week, Teiser received an email from his friend Ainsleigh Rice, who is part of the Marcher Apple Network in the Welsh Marches. Rice had some exciting news: the 'ghost apple' is no longer unknown. They found a DNA match from a tree in Gloucestershire. The identification of the 'ghost apple' is just one of the discoveries being made as British apples enter the DNA age, making it easier to identify and preserve what remains. It's an exhilarating time for apple enthusiasts like Teiser. I can hear the excitement in his voice. Right in front of us, in fact, is a potential source for more surprises. In this paddock and the next one, surrounded by sheep, there are more than 150 different types of cider apple trees. These trees were created by taking grafts from an old orchard planted nearly a century ago by Bulmer's, the cider maker. Teiser manages this collection under an agreement with a charitable trust that runs the National Collection of Cider and Perry, located a short drive away through country lanes on the outskirts of Hereford, near the border between England and Wales. Although these trees have had a basic genetic identification, Teiser hopes to have a more detailed DNA sequence run at some point, which could provide more information about how these trees fit into the family tree. Teiser is also waiting to hear back about the DNA results from another old collection nearby. He is very curious about what those results might reveal. There are apples documented in 19th-century books that have slipped through people's fingers. For example, there is the Hagloe Crab, a cider apple that was once incredibly common 400 years ago in the Forest of Dean. The last known confirmed example was destroyed in the mid-20th century. There's also the Styre, a cider variety Teiser encountered once as a young man. Although there are other apples with that name, none of them match the one he knew, which was lost when the tree that produced the fruit was uprooted for a driveway. It's his 'White Whale', the apple that haunts his thoughts. With more detailed information from DNA analysis, Teiser and others on the hunt for lost varieties can rule out candidate apples. For instance, there was one apple in another Bulmer's orchard that had been labeled 'Upright Medaille d'Or' in an old plan. The fruit seemed a close match for Hogg's descriptions of the Forest Styre. Teiser was intrigued and thought it could be the lost Forest Styre. However, genetic testing revealed that the apple was actually a close match for a French variety. The case of the missing Forest Styre remains open. Undaunted, Teiser is always on the lookout for apples that may be an ancient variety in disguise. In fact, he and Rice believe they have uncovered just such an apple, documented by Robert Hogg in 1884. It's been going by the name Freetown Yellow, but Teiser and Rice have put together a detailed argument that it is actually the Hagloe Crab, a greenish-yellow cider apple. Putting the right names to old things matters. British apples are part of a heritage that goes back centuries, and although apple orchards have dwindled in the country, there are people willing to put in the time and effort to keep these varieties alive. Charles Martell, a Gloucester cheese maker and apple expert, for instance, has made a career of finding and preserving old apple varieties. It was an apple he found in 1993 that turned out to match the 'ghost apple'. The 'ghost apple' was revealed to be a tree called the Hagloe Crab. It has lime green fruit with a pale pink flush, and Martell described it in his book Native Apples of Gloucestershire. It's a cooking apple, best stewed or used in a tart. And at some point in the past, it was a parent to many better-known varieties. Back in the Museum of Cider in Hereford, Teiser examines apple portraits made by a watercolorist long ago to accompany Robert Hogg's descriptions of fruit. The Golden Winter Permain, the Kentish Pippin, the Golden Spire – they seem to leap off the paper, round and ready to be picked. For now, Teiser eagerly awaits his next batch of DNA results. There's one particular orchard with a few very old trees, and he is greatly looking forward to getting the results. 'It was in a similar orchard that we discovered the lost Kempley Red (also known as Carrion Apple) last year,' he writes to me in an email. I looked up the Kempley Red in Hogg's book: the watercolor shows it as red with striations of crimson and yellow. It's a beautiful apple and worth searching for.