Belle Fleur apple

Malus huntigiana - Belle-Fleur Apple

Discovered at the turn of the 19th century in the Senart forest by the famous nurseryman Louis Noisette, the Belle-Fleur Apple fascinates with its deformed, almost sculptural appearance: much thicker at the base than at the top, slightly angular, it forms a unique pentagonal silhouette in the orchard.

The largest specimens display a disturbing peculiarity: seedless, they reveal a vast pentagonal cavity at their core, a spectacular testament to exceptional vegetative vigor that ruptured the central axis.

This imposing fruit, reaching 9 centimeters in height, is distinguished by its thick, smooth skin, pale yellow speckled with greenish dots in the shade, and flamed vivid red in the sun.

Its white, fine, and compact flesh, without pomace, yields a pleasantly tart water that makes it a superior apple to the Passe-Pommes and Pigeonnets of its era.

The tree that bears it has large oval-elongated leaves, channeled like a gutter, downy on the underside, and pink flowers about 4 centimeters in diameter, grouped in bouquets of five to six. Ripening in September-October, it could be kept until May, at which point its flesh tended to become mealy.

Poiteau naturally classifies it between Calvilles and Pigeonnets, recognized for over fifty years in Parisian nurseries.

This plate is taken from Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers, a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference in 19th-century naturalist illustration.

It combines the rigor of scientific drawing with a rare artistic sensibility, characteristic of the great plates from the golden age of illustrated botany.