Apple

I drew the apple in the classical pose of botanical illustration. There is the whole fruit, one cut in half, and a branch with a leaf and the remnant of a flower. The cut half is the point. The pips sit around the core in five chambers, the signature of the rose family. The flesh around them is pale and fine-grained. In this apple print the calyx is at the bottom and the stalk at the top. Between them is one of the most thoroughly domesticated fruits of the temperate world. It is one of the fruit plates among the studio’s botanical art prints.

In shortThe apple, Malus domestica, is a rose-family fruit tree. It descends from the wild apples of the Tian Shan mountains in Central Asia. Its fruit is a pome with a core of five chambers. The plate shows a whole apple, a halved one and a branch with a leaf.

Key Facts

Where do apples come from?

Domestic apples come from the Tian Shan mountains of Central Asia, where their wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, still grows. The Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov traced the apple to these forests in 1929, and genetic work has since supported him. The trees there vary widely in size, shape and flavour. Botanists treat them as the genetic source of the cultivated apple.

From the mountains the apple travelled along trade routes. Animals and the horses of traders carried seeds. On the way the trees crossed with other species, including European crabapple. That crossing added to the diversity of the fruit we know today.

The wild forests have paid for that history. Malus sieversii is on the IUCN Red List. Logging, housing and grazing have destroyed much of the forest near Almaty. The old name of that city, Alma-Ata, is often translated as father of the apples.

Why does a cut apple show a five-pointed star?

A cut apple shows a star because its core holds five seed chambers, called carpels, in a ring. Slice the fruit across the middle and the chambers appear as a star. Each holds a pip or two. The pattern belongs to the rose family, Rosaceae, whose flowers have five petals and whose fruit often has five parts.

The apple is a pome, a fruit in which the flesh does not come mainly from the ovary. The ovary is the core. The thick, edible flesh around it grows from the cup-shaped base of the flower, the hypanthium. That base swells and closes around the carpels. In botanical terms, the part most people throw away is the true fruit. The part they eat is accessory tissue.

Pears and hawthorns are built the same way. At the base of the apple, the dried calyx marks the place where the flower sat.

Why is every Gala apple a clone?

Every Gala apple is a clone because apples do not come true from seed. Plant a pip and the seedling is a new, genetically unique tree, and its fruit usually differs from the parent’s. Growers fix a variety by grafting a cutting onto a rootstock. Each Gala therefore descends from tissue of one original tree.

The rootstock controls the size of the tree and part of its resistance to disease. The grafted top gives the fruit. Grafting has been used for thousands of years. It allowed people to keep the best trees from a very variable wild stock. The result is thousands of named cultivars. They range from tart cooking apples such as Bramley to sweet eating apples such as Fuji and Honeycrisp.

Wild apple populations carry far more genetic diversity than any cultivated variety. That is one reason the forests of the Tian Shan matter to the people who breed the fruit.

Why is the apple linked with knowledge and peace?

The apple carries more symbolism than almost any other fruit, much of it through stories. The book of Genesis names only a fruit of the tree. Later tradition made it an apple, which tied the fruit to knowledge and temptation. In Greek myth, golden apples stood for immortality. In Norse myth, the goddess Idun kept apples that kept the gods young.

The health saying has a firm date. An apple a day keeps the doctor away began as a Welsh proverb in the 1860s.

In China the link is a pun. The word for apple, píngguǒ, starts with the sound píng, which also means peace. Apples are therefore given on Christmas Eve as a wish for peace.

Drawing the apple

The plate shows the apple three ways: whole, cut in half, and on the branch. The whole fruit gives the outer form, with the stalk at the top and the calyx at the bottom. The half shows what a closed apple hides. Pips lie in five chambers around the core, and the flesh is made of fine cells that store water.

The branch carries a leaf and the remnant of a flower, which places the fruit on the tree it came from. Fruit, section and branch together is an arrangement botanical illustrators have long used. It lets the plate work as a record of the plant, not only as a picture of one apple. The hand-drawn digital illustration keeps the chambers, the pips and the grain of the flesh readable.

Where does an apple print work on a wall?

An apple print suits a kitchen, a dining room or a study. It suits any room that wants a plain, familiar subject. Everyone knows the fruit, so it works as a quiet anchor beside more unusual plates. In a natural wood or warm black frame it reads warm and classic. In a white frame it is cleaner and more contemporary. It belongs to the Workspace Green collection and to the complete collection. In the photograph below, it hangs with the cherry and tomato prints in a kitchen with a green cabinet.

Fine-art print →

Frequently Asked Questions

How many varieties of apple are there?

Thousands. Figures of more than 7,500 named cultivars are often quoted. They range from tart cooking apples to sweet dessert types in red, green and gold. A handful of varieties dominate the market. Only about 15 types account for 90 percent of apples grown in the United States.

When are apples harvested?

In temperate climates the main harvest runs from September to November. Early varieties ripen sooner, and late keepers are picked last. The date depends on the variety and the region, so one orchard may be harvested over several weeks.

Why is the apple in the rose family?

The apple tree has the rose family’s five-petalled flower. Its fruit is built on five parts, the five carpels of the core. Pears, quinces and hawthorns share this plan. A rose hip is a different kind of fruit.

Is the wild ancestor of the apple endangered?

Yes. Malus sieversii is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Much of its forest in Kazakhstan has been lost to logging, farming and housing. The trees near Almaty have suffered most. Conserving the remaining forests protects a gene pool that breeders may need.

How is this print made, and how does it reach me?

There are two formats. The digital download is a high-resolution file that you print yourself, at home or at a print shop; no physical item is shipped. The fine-art print is printed to order on archival paper or canvas, framed or unframed, in sizes from small prints to over 150 cm (60 inches), and delivered to your door.