On the Origin of tlie Edible Apple 



William J. Bramlage 



Department of Plant & Soil Sciences, University of Massachusetts 



It is generally believed that the edible apple 

 originated somewhere in Central Asia. It is a member 

 of the Rosaceae (rose) Family, and is designated by the 

 scientific name Malus doinestica. There are many 

 other wild species of Malus, and it is generally 

 assumed that M doinestica evolved from chance 

 hybridization among these wild species. 



A recent article in The Garden, a publication of the 

 Royal Horticultural Society, London, England 

 (Volume 1 26 (6), June, 200 1 ) pamts an interesting new 

 picture of the apple's origm. Over the past four years 

 Dr. Barrie Juniper, Emeritus Fellow in the Department 

 of Plant Sciences at Oxford University, has been 

 pursumg this question using the new power of DNA 

 analysis. He believes that the hybridization theory is 

 almost certainly false and that the true origin of the 

 apples we eat today is a small population of a single 

 species still growing in the 111 Valley on the northern 

 slopes of the Tien Shan ("Heavenly Mountains") 

 mountains at the border of northeast China and the 

 former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. (The name of 

 Kazkhstan's capital, Almaty, means "father of 

 apples.") He believes that this isolated species has 

 evolved over the past 4.5 million years to become 

 larger and sweeter, and was carried into the Western 

 World by travelers on the ancient "silk roads." 



In 1997, Dr. Juniper and a small research group 

 discovered a "malian wonderland" of wild fruit trees in 

 Kazakhstan at an altitude of 5,000 feet on a 

 mountainside overlooking China. The apple trees 

 there grow 30 feet in height and bear fruits ranging in 

 color from yellow to red, and in size from that of 

 crabapples to that of large, commercial cultivars. 

 Leaves were taken from each tree and later analyzed 

 for DNA composition. This showed them all to belong 

 to the species M. sieversii, but with some genetic 

 sequences common to M. domes tica. Subsequent 

 travels to the site and further research have created the 

 following hypothesis on the evolution of today's 



edible apple. 



Dr. Juniper believes that the original Malus 

 species evolved in cental and southern China ten to 

 twenty million years ago and bore a small fruit with 

 hard but edible seeds. It was spread by birds 

 throughout the northern hemisphere. A key small 

 group of wild apples spread northwest from their 

 central China origin during the time the Tien Shan 

 mountain range was rising from the collision of the 

 Indian and Asian land plates. Birds carried seeds into 

 today's Kazakhstan. As the mountains created the 

 Gobi and Taklimakan deserts to their east, these 

 prevented seed transport back to the east. The result 

 was that a population of Mains became isolated 

 geographically among the towering Tien Shan 

 mountains and slowly evolved in seclusion for 

 geological periods of time. 



As early as seven million years ago, this area was 

 populated by forest deer, wild pigs, and bears in the 

 woodlands, and by wild horses and donkeys on the 

 Steppes further west. All of these herbivores would 

 have gorged themselves on the apple fruits, selecting 

 those trees producing larger, sweeter, and juicier fruit. 

 They therefore selectively spread seeds from better 

 tasting fruit aiding the evolution of these features. 

 Selected in this way, gradually the apple changed from 

 a bird's food with edible seeds to a larger mammal's 

 food with poisonous (cyanide-containing) seeds. The 

 seed coat became smooth, black, and hard, and the seed 

 Itself became tear-shaped, allowing it to pass easily 

 through the animals' guts. 



Much later, after the end of the last ice age (about 

 10,000 years ago), humans began to travel the animal 

 migratory routes east and west (the "silk roads") and 

 they too began consuming these new fruits, and began 

 carrying them westward. The trees began to be 

 cultivated m progressively more sophisticated ways in 

 Mesopotamia and then in the Mediterranean area. The 

 early trees all would have been grown from seeds, thus 



Fruit Notes, Volume 66, 2001 



