Flower of Kent

This article may contain unsourced peacock terms that merely promote the subject without imparting verifiable information. Please remove or replace such wording, unless you can cite independent sources that support the characterization.

This apple tree at the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge is a descendant of a tree which grew in Isaac Newton's garden at Woolsthorpe Manor.

The Flower of Kent is a green variety of cooking apple. According to the story, this is the apple Isaac Newton saw falling to ground from its tree, inspiring his laws of universal gravitation. It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards. Despite the name, it is likely of French origin.

Though now largely gone from cultivation, a handful of Flower of Kent trees remain. Most, if not all, are said to descend from trees at Newton's Woolsthorpe Manor, and nearly all currently in existence descend from a single tree in East Malling, Kent. Currently, this cultivar remains available at Antique Apple Orchard Inc. in Sweet Home, Oregon.^[1]

The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale^[2] contains an example, listed as "Isaac Newton's Tree" (1948-729)

Readers may wonder on what evidence people say that Newton's apple is a Flower of Kent. Newton told John Conduitt that he had first thought of gravitation in the plague year (1665) when the university had gone down and Newton went to Woolsthorpe. In fact Newton seems to have performed a 'thought-experiment' what people would later call a gedanken experiment. In the eighteenth century, visiting Woolsthorpe became quite popular, in the tourist sense that if a way-farer sat under the tree as Newton did, then they would have the same thoughts as he did. The very tree died in the late eighteenth century,^{[citation needed]} however luckily someone has made a sketch of Woolsthorpe in 1777 and that shows the tree. Pundits say, that you can tell it is a Flower of Kent.

References

External links

• A Brief History of Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree
• Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree at Woolsthorpe Manor

v • d • e Apple cultivars Adams Pearmain · Ambrosia · Antonovka · Aurora Golden Gala · Baldwin · Ben Davis · Blenheim Orange · Belle de Boskoop · Braeburn · Bramley · Brina · Cameo · Cornish Gilliflower · Cortland · Cox's Orange Pippin · Cripps Pink (Pink Lady) · Discovery · Egremont Russet · Elstar · Empire · Esopus Spitzenburg · Flower of Kent · Fuji · Gala · Ginger Gold · Golden Orange · Golden Delicious · Granny Smith · Gravenstein · Haralson · Honeycrisp · Idared · James Grieve · Jazz · Jersey Black · Jonagold · Jonathan · Junaluska · Karmijn de Sonnaville · Knobbed Russet · Liberty · Macoun · McIntosh · Mutsu · Newtown Pippin · Nickajack · Nicola · Norfolk Biffin · Northern Spy · Paula Red · Pink Pearl · Pinova · Ralls Genet · Rambo · Red Delicious · Rhode Island Greening · Ribston Pippin · Rome · Roxbury Russet · Rubens (Civni) · Sekai Ichi · Spartan · Stayman Winesap · Summerfree · Taliaferro · Worcester Pearmain · Zestar

This fruit-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v • d • e