Flower of Kent

This apple tree at the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge is a descendant of a tree which grew in Isaac Newton's garden at Woolsthorpe Manor. Erroneously photographed with an apple of the "Red Delicious" variety.

The Flower of Kent is a green variety 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. Despite the name, it is likely of French origin.^{[citation needed]}

Though now largely gone from 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. Currently, this cultivar remains available at Antique Apple Orchard Inc. in Sweet Home, Oregon.^[1]

The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale^[2] contains an example, listed as "Isaac Newton's Tree" (1948-729)

References

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

External links

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

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