On The Origin of The Edible Apple

On the Origin of the Edible Apple
William J. Bramlage
Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts
It is generally believed that the edible apple edible apple.

originated somewhere in Central Asia. It is a member Dr. Juniper believes that the original Malus
of the Rosaceae (rose) Family, and is designated by the species evolved in cental and southern China ten to
scientific name Malus domestica. There are many twenty million years ago and bore a small fruit with
other wild species of Malus, and it is generally hard but edible seeds. It was spread by birds
assumed that M. domestica evolved from chance throughout the northern hemisphere. A key small
hybridization among these wild species. group of wild apples spread northwest from their
A recent article in The Garden, a publication of the central China origin during the time the Tien Shan
Royal Horticultural Society, London, England mountain range was rising from the collision of the
(Volume 126 (6), June, 2001) paints an interesting new Indian and Asian land plates. Birds carried seeds into
picture of the apple’s origin. Over the past four years today’s Kazakhstan. As the mountains created the
Dr. Barrie Juniper, Emeritus Fellow in the Department Gobi and Taklimakan deserts to their east, these
of Plant Sciences at Oxford University, has been prevented seed transport back to the east. The result
pursuing this question using the new power of DNA was that a population of Malus became isolated
analysis. He believes that the hybridization theory is geographically among the towering Tien Shan
almost certainly false and that the true origin of the mountains and slowly evolved in seclusion for
apples we eat today is a small population of a single geological periods of time.
species still growing in the Ili Valley on the northern As early as seven million years ago, this area was
slopes of the Tien Shan (“Heavenly Mountains”) populated by forest deer, wild pigs, and bears in the
mountains at the border of northeast China and the woodlands, and by wild horses and donkeys on the
former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. (The name of Steppes further west. All of these herbivores would
Kazkhstan’s capital, Almaty, means “father of have gorged themselves on the apple fruits, selecting
apples.”) He believes that this isolated species has those trees producing larger, sweeter, and juicier fruit.
evolved over the past 4.5 million years to become They therefore selectively spread seeds from better
larger and sweeter, and was carried into the Western tasting fruit aiding the evolution of these features.
World by travelers on the ancient “silk roads.” Selected in this way, gradually the apple changed from
In 1997, Dr. Juniper and a small research group a bird’s food with edible seeds to a larger mammal’s
discovered a “malian wonderland” of wild fruit trees in food with poisonous (cyanide-containing) seeds. The
Kazakhstan at an altitude of 5,000 feet on a seed coat became smooth, black, and hard, and the seed
mountainside overlooking China. The apple trees itself became tear-shaped, allowing it to pass easily
there grow 30 feet in height and bear fruits ranging in through the animals’ guts.
color from yellow to red, and in size from that of Much later, after the end of the last ice age (about
crabapples to that of large, commercial cultivars. 10,000 years ago), humans began to travel the animal
Leaves were taken from each tree and later analyzed migratory routes east and west (the “silk roads”) and
for DNA composition. This showed them all to belong they too began consuming these new fruits, and began
to the species M. sieversii, but with some genetic carrying them westward. The trees began to be
sequences common to M. domestica. Subsequent cultivated in progressively more sophisticated ways in
travels to the site and further research have created the Mesopotamia and then in the Mediterranean area. The
following hypothesis on the evolution of today’s early trees all would have been grown from seeds, thus
Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001 1

producing a diverse population similar to that Dr. opened the door to interesting new thinking about
Juniper discovered in Kazakhstan. When the art of evolution of today’s fruits. He himself is returning to
grafting was discovered and developed, clones of the ancient fruit forest he discovered to repeat his apple
select types were capable of being cultivated and studies on the pears, apricots, plums, and cherries also
deliberate selections to be made. This process growing there. “We’ve started with the apple.
continues today. Hopefully, we will go on to establish the genetic
Whether or not his hypothesis on the origin of history of other fruits, too,” says Dr. Juniper.
apples is correct is debatable, but Dr. Juniper has
*****
2 Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001

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On the Origin of the Edible Apple

It is generally believed that the edible apple edible apple.

Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001 1

2 Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001

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