Cultivated Apple (Peasgood's Nonsuch)

The Peasgood's Nonsuch apple variety is a dessert and cooking cultivar developed in 1858.
This species has been sponsored by: 
Carol Sullivan

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Malus domestica
Family: 
Roses
Family Latin name: 
ROSACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants

Species description

Species description

The wild ancestor of our cultivated apple is Malus sieversii from central Asia, particularly the western slopes of the Tian Shan mountains. When this variety reached Europe, via the Middle East, where apple cultivation occurred 5000 years ago, it was crossed with the wild crab apple, Malus sylvestris, to give the first of many apple varieties.

This variety is a dessert and cooking variety developed in 1858 as one of five pips planted in a pot by the father of Emma Mamby in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Emma married John F. Peasgood and moved to nearby Stamford, taking with her the one surviving seedling apple. Seven years later, the tree flowered and produced fruit. A basket of these were taken to the Agricultural Show at Burghley Park where they won first prize on September 6th 1872, classed as "kitchen apples". A selection of these apples was sent to the fruit panel of the Royal Horticultural Society in London, where on 18th September of that year they were awarded a first prize, and subsequently named "Peasgood's Nonsuch". That name is still in use today.

Both John and Emma Peasgood are buried in Heene Cemetery. You can read their detailed biographies here: Emma Peasgood, John Peasgood.

This Peasgood's Nonsuch tree was planted on October 11th 2022 several steps away from Emma and John's grave (in row 13, plot 3 in the SES area of the Cemetery).

A detailed history of the Peasgood's Nonsuch apple tree is available on the FruitID website. This includes some lovely photographs of the fruit, as well as copies of historic newspaper cuttings and award citations. The Royal Horticultural Society lists this fruit tree on their website tagged as an 'Award of Garden Merit' plant and a 'Plants for Pollinators' plant.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
The Peasgood's Nonsuch apple variety is a dessert and cooking cultivar developed in 1858.
The Peasgood's Nonsuch apple variety is a dessert and cooking cultivar developed in 1858.
The Peasgood's Nonsuch apple variety was planted on October 12th 2022.
The Peasgood's Nonsuch apple variety is a dessert and cooking cultivar developed in 1858.

Details

Species family information

The Rose family gives us many of our most commercially important fruits, such as the Prunus species. They have alternate leaves and 5-petalled flowers.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.