Apples

"Our modern apple is a hybrid of several wild species (Cornille et al., 2012). Important genetic contributions came from hybridizing Malus sieversii and M. orientalis, the latter of which may have been cultivated or maintained in Iran long before the Tian Shan apple was introduced. However, it is clear that the European wild apple (M. sylvestris) also played a significant role in subsequent hybridizations (Cornille et al., 2012). The European wild apples were maintained and possibly cultivated long before M. sieversii × M. orientalis hybrids made their way to Europe. Wild fruits germinating produce a wide variety of traits, it is only clonal reproduction by humans, that the traits of these hybrids could be maintained. The grafting of apples seems to have been a widespread practice in southern Europe by the early first millennium A.D. (Mudge et al., 2009).Therefore, the driving force of apple domestication appears to have been the trans-Eurasian crop exchange, or the movement of plants along the Silk Road (Spengler, 2015, 2019).

UK

We were famous for our apples - Kent the garden of England, Evesham to provide for Brum. Then came 1973 and Britain's entry into the Common Market. Suddenly French apples began appearing in the shops, jolting local varieties to the core.  

In the  70s - the English apple crop diminished by 150 tons. French apples cascaded into replace them. The Golden Delicious led the invasion. I remember when I was hauled into the office of the Director of East Malling Fruit Research Station, the direcor  - Dr Tubbs - told me that '"The British housewife will never buy Golden Delicious". This is the reason he gave for our Fruit Research Station not building up stocks of the variety in the 1960's.

In 1980 250,000 tons of them assaulted the terrority of King Cox. At least as many  take the same route the next year. Appeals by English orchardists for government help were not effective. Cox's Orange Pippins, aided by Bramleys, Worcesters, Russets, and other lesser varieties, were  expected to secure their own defenses.

The French believed it would be an unequal struggle, for the Golden Delicious has one big advantage: More and more Britons were prepared to welcome the invader with open mouths despite the Director fo East Malling predicting the opposite. 

US

Ironically, the Golden Delicious is an American apple. When colonisers arrived there were no apples, but by 1900 - the golden age of apples - there were 14,000 varieties of all sorts doing lts of different culinary tricks - including getting people drunk on cider. there were all sorts names, including 'Red Delicious' in Ohio. Johnny Appleseed would move apples to where the next settlements. The Stark Brothers bought right to market this delicious apple, although it has now lost its taste. It went from the United States to Algeria as part of a postwar aid scheme. When Algerian growers moved to France after independence they took cuttings with them.