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Fruit Fact: Ellison's Orange, a variety of apples
A very unique anise flavored apple in the cox orange pippin family of apples, the anise flavor can be so strong that the apple can taste too medicinal, however, at it's prime, it's delicious and complex.
Variety Background:
| Most Common Name: | Ellison's Orange |
|---|---|
| Species: | malus domestica, cox orange pippin x Calville Blanc. |
| Synonyms: | A sport called red ellison's is available. |
| Origin: | Bred by Rev. Ellison, a well-known fruit aficionado who had a large collection of interesting fruit trees at the turn of the last Century. 1904, Bracebridge Mans, England, introduced in 1911, even grown commercially in England in the 1920's, but the strong anise flavor didn't appeal to a broad enough audience. |
| Patents or Trademarks: | None |
Fruit:
Description: Medium sized, round to slightly conical apple with brownish-crimson stripes and brownish-red stripes over golden yellow background. The skin tends to be greasy even when freshly picked.
Flavor and tasting notes: At it's prime, the creamy white flesh is tender melting and juicy, richly aromatic with a pronounced anise flavor. If the fruit is exposed to excessive heat or if stored too long, the flavor will degrade and become medicinal. If picked too soon, the anise flavor may not be present.
Adaptation:
High heat can ruin the fruit and render it too medicinal, so it's best grown in cooler Summer climates. Hardy, grows well in Central California.
Bloom Time Rating: F13
Growth Habit:
Moderately vigorous, upright growth habit, comes into bearing early, produces a lot of spurs.
Vigor: T2
Harvest, storage and consumption:
Precocious, but needs thinning to avoid biennial tendency and undersized fruit. The fruit ripens early to mid September, and doesn't keep more than a couple of weeks at best. Will go mealy quickly.
Begin of Harvest: early Sept
End of Harvest: mid Sept
Stores Until: early Oct
Usage:
Mostly a dessert apple, can be used for juicing.
Eating: Yes
Cooking: No
Cider: Yes
Diseases:
Highly susceptible to both fireblight and canker.
Scab Susceptibility: Unknown
Fire Blight Susceptibility: High
Powdery Mildew Susceptibility: Unknown
Cedar Apple Rust Susceptibility: Unknown
Black Rot Susceptibility: Unknown
Phytopthera Rots Susceptibility: Unknown
Fly Speck Susceptibility: Unknown
Coddling Moth Susceptibility: Unknown
Nurseries that carry this variety:
Available from various sources,
GRIN Cross Reference: PI 589575
Photo Gallery
This picture shows the Ellison's orange depicted in Raintree's catalog. This is where I bought my tree and the fruit look exactly as in this photo. (c) Raintree Nursery
This picture depicts what are supposed to be Ellison's orange fruit with little blush and few stripes. The fruit in my orchard bear little resemblance to these, these lack the brownish crimson stripes and have practically no blush (c) Sven Teschke Wikipedia
The GIN picture seem to depict seriously under ripe fruit, but perhaps this is the state they need to be picked in to avoid the flavor from going medicinal (c) USDA GRIN
Thanks, I'll let you know in a few weeks how it turns out.
You need to watch some grafting tutorials or get someone to show you how. And you must use a grafting knife if you're going to be serious about grafting.
Axel I've yet to be successful at grafting; however I'm about to try it in a big way this week with budwood from UC Davis. If I 'm successful I would love some bud wood from Licorice Pippin.
Thanks for the offer
DanNo, it's not, but the buds are very pink when they emerge, the pink gene is definitely in there.
Is it pink fleshed? Apparently the red flesh gene is dominant.
Dweinzapfel, I've got about 5 grafts of it that took last Summer, they will go gangbusters because they're on big trees. So if you want some wood, i can send you some next Fall. I am going to call it the Licorice pippin.
One of these days you may have a lot of requesta for bud wood, however I imagine it will be 2-3 years before you would have any available. Dan
The 200 seedlings were all totally different, not one one like the other. The grower didn't think the one I liked was interesting, but I collected scion wood anyway and put the fruit in the apple tasting as 'rider pippin'. People loved the apple. My scions took last August and are breaking bud right now. I'd like to call it anise pippin.
Wow, that's fascinating! How long did the 200 seedlings take to fruit? Were they all markedly different? Did he really compare 200 apples! Who named the tree you kept?
Dan, thanks for the tip, I think I have sweet sixteen somewhere in my orchard, not sure. Turns out that last Fall, my ellison orange apples finally lived up to their reputation, They were delicious! Also, last Summer, we tasted a bunch of apple seedlings at a local apple grower who grew about 200 different ones from pink pearl seeds. One of them turned out to have an intense anise flavor, I got some scion wood and I am growing that one now. It's a very large yellow apple that ripens late August to early September in our climate. I am glad I grafted it because the parent tree was chopped down last Winter.
Axel I've heard that sweet 16 has an anise flavor, mine hasn't reached bearing age yet so I cannot verify its flavor nor the intensity of any anise-like flavors. Dan
I grow this one in my orchard. I ordered mine from Raintree nursery, it's growing on M26, which is really not the most optimal rootstock, but it's right below my lawn where it gets plenty of water. last year it fruited for the first time, it got really hot at harvest and the fruit turned out to taste very medicinal. It clearly tasted as if the apples overheated on the tree. So next year, I will be picking the fruit early to avoid this problem. Hopefully they will develop the anise flavor I've been looking for.