Granny Smith

Malus 'Granny Smith'
Hybrid parentage
Thought to be Malus domestica × M. sylvestris
Cultivar
Granny Smith
Origin
Maria Ann (Sherwood) Smith Australia, 1867

Maria Ann Sherwood Smith (1799-1870)

The Granny Smith, green apple, is a tip-bearing apple cultivar. It originated in Australia in 1868 from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Ann Smith (née Sherwood, b. 1799, d. 9 March 1870), where the name "Granny Smith" comes from.^[1] It is thought to be a seed from Malus sylvestris, the European Wild Apple, with the domestic apple M. domestica as the polleniser, which would make it a hybrid. Widely propagated in New Zealand, it was introduced to the United Kingdom circa 1935 and the United States in 1972 by Grady Auvil.

To this day, there is an annual Granny Smith Festival in Eastwood, New South Wales at the end of October. The celebration marks the fact that beyond the cultivar's local origins, in the late 19th, early 20th Century, the orchards of Eastwood supplied apples to the Sydney region. Sydney, with its humid subtropical climate is not ideally suited for growing apples but Granny Smith did notably well while other cultivars struggled. With much easier transport, apples are no longer grown commercially in the Sydney region.

Granny Smith apples are light green in colour. They are crisp, juicy, tart apples which are excellent for both cooking and eating raw. They also are favoured for salads because the slices do not brown as quickly as other varieties. It also tends to have a harder texture than other green apples.

This cultivar needs fewer winter chill hours and a longer growing season to mature the fruit, so it is favored for the milder areas of the apple growing regions.

Granny Smith apples are widely recognised throughout the world and The Beatles Apple Records adopted a Granny Smith apple as its symbol.

Related Media

"Ode To Granny Smith" - Early 2000's song by the West Midlands based ensemble The Apple Juice Rockers.

References

1. ^ "Granny Smith and her Apples". http://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/ryde/msherwood.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-11. 

External links

• Media related to Granny Smith at Wikimedia Commons

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