The Red Delicious is a clone of apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

 cultigen

Cultigen

A cultigen is a plant that has been deliberately altered or selected by humans; it is the result of artificial selection. These "man-made" or anthropogenic plants are, for the most part, plants of commerce that are used in horticulture, agriculture and forestry...

, now comprising more than 50 cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

s, that was recognized in Madison County

Madison County, Iowa

-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 15,679 in the county, with a population density of . There were 6,554 housing units, of which 6,025 were occupied.-2000 census:...

, Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, in 1880. As new cultivars with improved color and earlier harvestability have replaced the original cultivar in commercial orchards, the taste and texture of the harvested commodity have deteriorated, and many customers have begun to reject the Red Delicious at the food market. Roger Yepsen notes some of the Red's less desirable qualities. "The skin is thick and bitter and has to be chewed vigorously... this apple ranks close to the bottom when cooked... sold year round, so shop with skepticism. Delicious retains its cheerful good looks long after its flavor has departed."

History

The Red Delicious originated at an orchard in 1880 as "a round, blushed yellow fruit of surpassing sweetness". Stark Nurseries held a competition in 1892 to find an apple to replace the Ben Davis apple

Ben Davis (apple)

- Overview :During the 19th century it was a popular commercial apple due to the ruggedness and keeping qualities of the fruit, but as packing and transportation techniques improved the variety fell out of favour, replaced by varieties considered to have better flavour...

. The winner was a red and yellow striped apple sent by Jesse Hiatt, a farmer in Peru, Iowa

Old Peru, Iowa

Old Peru is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Iowa, United States. Its elevation is 1,122 feet . Although Old Peru is unincorporated, it once had a post office under the name of Peru; the office was established on 18 April 1853 and closed on 14 September 1903...

, who called it "Hawkeye". Stark Nurseries bought the rights from Hiatt, renamed the variety "Stark Delicious", and began propagating

Plant propagation

Plant propagation is the process of creating new plants from a variety of sources: seeds, cuttings, bulbs and other plant parts. Plant propagation can also refer to the artificial or natural dispersal of plants.-Sexual propagation :...

 it. Another apple tree, later named the Golden Delicious

Golden Delicious

The Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple with a yellow color. It is not closely related to the Red Delicious apple.- Appearance and flavor :...

, was also marketed by Stark Nurseries after it was purchased from a farmer in Clay County, West Virginia

Clay County, West Virginia

-External links:***...

, in 1914; the Delicious became the Red Delicious as a retronym

Retronym

A retronym is a type of neologism that provides a new name for an object or concept to differentiate the original form or version of it from a more recent form or version. The original name is most often augmented with an adjective to account for later developments of the object or concept itself...

.

Production decline

In the 1980s, Red Delicious represented three-quarters of the harvest in Washington state. A decade later, reliance on Red Delicious had helped to push Washington state's apple industry to the edge. In 2000, Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 approved and President Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...

 signed a bill

Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....

 to bail out the apple industry, after apple growers had lost $760 million since 1997. By 2000, this cultivar made up less than one half of the Washington state output, and in 2003, the crop had shrunk to 37 percent of the state's harvest, which totaled 103 million boxes. Although Red Delicious still remained the single largest variety produced in the state in 2005, others were growing in popularity, notably the Cameo

Cameo (apple)

The Cameo is a cultivar of apple, discovered by chance by the Caudle family in a Dryden, Washington orchard in 1987. Its parentage is uncertain; it may be a cross between a Red Delicious and a Golden Delicious, since it was found near orchards of those fruits; it also appears similar to the...

, Fuji and Gala varieties.

Sports (mutations)

Over the years, many propagable mutations, or sports, have been identified in Red Delicious apple trees. In addition to those that were propagated without any legal protection (or cut out because they were seen as inferior) 42 sports have been patented in the United States:

Date	"Inventor"	Marketed as	Mutated From	Assignee	Habit	Pattern	Earlier	Color	Plant Patent Number
Apr 3, 1934	Shotwell		Delicious		standard	less stripe	2 wk.	3-4 times
May 18, 1954	Plough	Royalred1805	Richared	C&O	standard	blush	10 d.	lighter
Aug 23, 1955	Brauns	Red King1811	Starking	Van Well	standard	stripe	2 wk.	more complete
Feb 12, 1957	Bisbee	Starkrimson	Starking	Stark	spur	blush	"earlier"	similar
Feb 3, 1959	Frazier & Jenkins		Starking	Elon J. Gilbert	standard	blush	10 d.	brighter
Feb 17, 1959	Hamilton	Hamilton		Hamilton	standard	blush	2 wk.	darker
Mar 24, 1959	Gilbert	Redspur	Starking	C&O	spur	blush	later	brighter
Feb 23, 1960	Hutchinson	Top Red3556	Shotwell	C&O	standard	striped	2-3 wk.	darker
Apr 5, 1960	Wood	Woods, Starkspur2606	Starking	Stark	spur	striped	1 wk.	deeper
Sep 24, 1963	Gould		Red Delicious	Miller&Miller	standard	blush	"early"	more intense
Aug 11, 1964	Gilbert Miller	Sturdyspur	Starking	Cons. Orch. Co	spur	blush	"early"	dark
Aug 25, 1964	Frank Rypczynski	"Frank", Super Starking5569	Starking	Stark	standard	subdued stripes	30 d.	fuller
Mar 15, 1966	Cooper		Starkrimson or Welspur		spur	stripe	10-14d.	more intense
June 4, 1968	Trumbull	Oregon Spur4819	Red King	Van Well	spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker
Dec 23, 1969	Diede		Starking	Stark	standard			more intense
Feb 2, 1971	Matson	Stark Earlibrite5547	Ryan Red	Stark	standard	blush	1 month	bright
Mar 2, 1971	Maxam		Starking		standard	blush		deeper
Apr 13, 1971	Norton		Vance		spur		2-3 wk.	brilliant
Feb 19, 1974	Coke	Rose Red	Starking	Rose	spur	blush	from start	dark
May 7, 1974	Pagnelli		Starking	Stark	spur	blush		brighter
May 28, 1974	Ward	Early Red One4839	Brauns	Van Well	standard	stripe	4 wk.	darker blackish-purple
May 28, 1974	Flanagan		Starking	Stark	spur	stripe	before Topred	brighter, lighter
June 11, 1974	Slusarenko		unknown	Stark	standard	stripe	4 d. before #2440	red
June 25, 1974	Campbell	Red Chief3578	Starkrimson	Hilltop	spur	stripe	"earlier"	deeper, brighter
Nov. 29, 1977	Silvers	Silverspur	Hi Early	McCormick	spur	stripe	2 wk. before Hi Early	bright
Jan 30, 1979	Craig		Oregon Spur		spur	stripe	2 wk.	darker, heavier
Aug 12, 1980	Perleberg	Ace	Starkrimson or Oregon Red		spur	stripe	18 d.	bright but deep
Jan 19, 1982	Garretson		Starking	Carlton		blush		bright
Feb 2, 1982	Green	Oregon Spur II6190	Oregon Spur	Wells & Wade	spur	stripe	10 d.	dark
Apr 20, 1982	Evans et al.	Scarlet Spur6190	Oregon Spur	Van Well	spur	blush	2 wk.	red stem
Nov 9, 1982	Coke&Smith	Super Clone4926M	Starking	McCormick, Bountiful Ridge	spur, dwarfing	stripe	no change, late bloom	light
Nov 13, 1984	Kemp	Top Spur5334	Starkrimson	C&O	spur	stripe	5-7 d.	deeper, brighter
Mar 26, 1985	Hanners	Eve's Delight	Spokane Beauty		stripe			light
May 21, 1985	Jenkins	Jenred,5472 Starkspur,5472 Ultrastripe5472	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	stripe	15 d.	more consistent
Sep 3, 1985	Hare	Hared,5547 Dixiered,5547 Starkspur5547	Oregon Spur	Stark	spur	blush	15-20 d.	dark
Oct 8, 1985	Gonzalez	Rico7237	Sharp Red	Merleley & al.	standard	stripe	20 d.
May 31, 1988	Sandidge	Super Chief	Red Chief		spur	stripe	18 d.	red stem
Mar 28, 1989	Valle	Vallee Spur6702	Red Chief		spur	blush	2 wk.	dark red with bloom
May 29, 1990	Sali	Sali7237	Redspur		semi-spur	blush	"earliest"	purple tinge
Aug 4, 1992	Winkel	AW-164,7928	Redchief	Inter-Plant Patent Marketing	spur	blush	5-10 d.	brighter
Mar 23, 1999	Deutscher	Cumberland Spur10,832	Oregon Spur		spur	blush	10-14 d.	complete
May 4, 2004	Burchinal	Adams Apple, Burchinal Red Delicious14,757	Oregon Spur II	Microsoft	spur	blush	immediately	more uniform, deeper, purple, bloom

Unpatented sports

Well-known but unpatented sports include:

• Chelan Red, which has been described as having oxblood red fruit
• Hi Early
• Houser
• Mood,²⁴³³ or Starking, which colors ~2 wk. before "standard Delicious"¹⁴¹¹
• Richared - brighter red than standard, blush, not stripe ¹²⁷⁸
• Ryan
• Sharp Red
• Spokane Beauty
• Wellspur

In 1977, the application for #4159 noted the "starchy and bland taste of some of the newer varieties."

The plant patent for #4926 promoted the sport as a dwarfing

Dwarfing

Dwarfing is a characteristic in plants and animals whereby one or more members of a breed or cultivar are significantly smaller than standard members of their species...

 interstock, a dwarfing rootstock

Rootstock

A rootstock is a plant, and sometimes just the stump, which already has an established, healthy root system, used for grafting a cutting or budding from another plant. The tree part being grafted onto the rootstock is usually called the scion...

 for pear

Pear

The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....

s, or to produce "crab apple

Malus

Malus , the apples, are a genus of about 30–35 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae. Other studies go as far as 55 species including the domesticated Orchard Apple, or Table apple as it was formerly called...

" sized Delicious apples.