Princess apple

Malus princeps - Princess Apple

In 1809, this apple was introduced into the Luxembourg nursery catalog under the name "Princesse noble" (Noble Princess), as if not all princesses were noble, Poiteau ironically remarked.

Unknown to Duhamel, this variety nevertheless established itself as one of the best reinettes, unjustly little known. Its bark cracks early, a singular trait that distinguishes it from all other apple trees, while its golden-yellow fruit streaked with red offers a fine and excellent flesh, to be consumed from October to January.

The tree is of modest size and irregular habit. Its vigorous, ash-colored, and geniculate buds are marked with large gray spots.

The oval leaves lengthen to a point, bordered with doubly-toothed edges, dark green on top, pale and hairy underneath.

The flowers, about 40 millimeters wide, display oval petals tinged with pink. The medium-sized fruit has a thin skin that detaches easily from the flesh: yellow on the shaded side, it becomes covered with red streaks on the sunny side, then gradually washes over with the same color, dotted with irregular brown spots and lines.

The yellowish-white flesh is fine and excellent, with little but sweet and pleasant juice. The locules contain many aborted seeds; those that persist are long, compressed, brown in color turning to flax gray upon desiccation. This exceptional apple ripens in October and keeps until January.

This plate is taken from Pierre-Antoine Poiteau and Pierre Jean François Turpin's Traité des Arbres Fruitiers (Treatise on Fruit Trees), a botanical encyclopedia published between 1807 and 1835, a major reference for 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.