Five Apple Facts for Apple Day
October 21 2016 - 14:43
The 21st October is National Apple Day, so to mark the occasion, here's three apple themed factoids:
1. There are over 6,000 varieties of cultivated apple
In fact, if you ate a different one each day it would take you over 16 years to get through them all!
2. Many are descended from the humble crabapple (Malus sylvestris, pictured):
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Don't try to pick them and eat them, though - wild crabapples taste far more tart and sour than cultivated apples. However, they do make a rather tasty jelly.
3. Apple blossom was used to indicate a preference
... according to floriography, also known as the "Language of Flowers". The Victorians were particularly keen on floriography, so receiving a bouquet of apple blossom from a Victorian Gent likely meant he fancied you more than anyone else.
4. Best not to get it mixed up with Crabapple blossom though...
Crabapple blossom, conversely, suggests you think the recipient is ill-tempered!
5. Mistletoe is particularly fond of apple trees
...which is why so much grows in our Joan's Hill Farm Reserve in Herefordshire (an old 19th century orchard is part of the site). Mistletoe, in turn, provides a home for six species of insect that can live nowhere else.