Flower of Kent

Reputed to be the apple cultivar that inspired Isaac Newton's apple analogy of gravitation

The Flower of Kent is a green cultivar of cooking apple. According to the story, this is the apple Isaac Newton saw falling to ground from its tree, inspiring his laws of universal gravitation. It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards. As its name suggests, this cultivar likely originated from Kent, England.^[1]

Though now largely gone from commercial cultivation, a handful of Flower of Kent trees remain. Most, if not all, are said to descend from trees at Newton's Woolsthorpe Manor, and nearly all currently in existence descend from a single tree in East Malling, Kent. One such tree is located in the President's Garden at MIT, although it is known to have produced only one apple.^[2] Currently, this cultivar remains available at Antique Apple Orchard Inc. in Sweet Home, Oregon.^[3]

The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale^[4] contains an example, listed as "Isaac Newton's Tree" (1948-729).

References

^ Sir Isaac Newton's Tree at Orange Pippin
^ This apple proved too tempting: Rare fruit nabbed from tree at MIT
^ "All About Apples". Archived from the original on 2009-08-14. Retrieved 2009-11-16.
^ Brogdale – Home of the National Fruit Collection

Keesing, R. G. (1998). "The history of Newton's apple tree". Contemporary Physics. 39 (5): 377–391. Bibcode:1998ConPh..39..377K. doi:10.1080/001075198181874.

External links

A Brief History of Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree
Isaac Newton’s Apple Tree at Woolsthorpe Manor

Apples

List of apple cultivars

Species

Malus domestica
Malus niedzwetzkyana
Malus sieversii

Table apples

Food	Apple butter Apple cake Apple cheese Apple chip Apple cider vinegar Apple crisp Apple flour Apple pie Apple sauce Apple seed oil Apple strudel Baked apple Candy apple Caramel apple Himmel und Erde Jewish apple cake Pectin
Drink	Apfelwein Apple cider Apple juice Applejack Calvados Cider Ice cider Pommeau