Lemon Pippin

Origin / History

Lemon Pippin is an English variety (Downing, Thomas); Elliott lists it as foreign. Bunyard places its origin probably before 1700. He says it was named from its resemblance to the lemon in shape and color, and that the name has also been applied to other apples. Lindley in 1841 called it "a good hardy variety" and "one of the most valuable orchard fruits we possess." By 1920 Bunyard called it "an old sort, now little grown."

Tree

Hardy. It bears constantly as a standard in all the midland counties and is very little subject to spot (Lindley). Growth moderate; fertility moderate (Bunyard).

Wood very upright, rather strong, olive brown, downy at the end. Leaves narrow, downy on the petioles and under surface when young, often brownish; stipules narrow, woolly (Lindley). Bunyard gives the leaf as long oval, upfolded, and undulating. Lindley calls the leaf crenate; Bunyard calls it serrate.

Fruit

Size: Medium; 2½ by 2½ (Bunyard).

Form: Oval, regular. Very regularly formed, without angles (Lindley).

Stem: Fleshy, curved inwards, and forming a continuation of the fruit. Very short, often enclosed by a fleshy protuberance (Bunyard). Lindley calls the curled, fleshy stalk "constant and remarkable" and says it "characterises it well."

Cavity: Almost nil where the stem is enclosed by the fleshy protuberance (Bunyard).

Calyx: Eye closed or a little open (Bunyard). "Eye even, hollow" (Lindley).

Basin: Irregular (Bunyard).

Skin: Pale greenish yellow or pale yellow green to lemon yellow. Green at first, changing to lemon-yellow (Bunyard). Neither red nor russet (Lindley).

Dots: Not described in source.

Flesh and flavor: Firm, breaking (Lindley), greenish-white (Bunyard). Subacid; "brisk subacid" (Downing). Bunyard calls it acid. Juice "not abundant, nor high-flavoured, but very pleasant" (Lindley). Downing rates it "Good"; Veitch calls it "a first-rate dessert variety."

Core and seeds: Not described in source.

Season

The recorded season runs from October into April. The fruit comes into eating at the end of October and keeps well till March or April (Lindley); Veitch likewise gives October to April. Elliott closes the season in January and Bunyard at March, while Downing gives October alone.

Uses

Dessert and kitchen. Veitch calls it "a first-rate dessert variety, good also for kitchen use"; Bunyard classes it as culinary. Lindley says it is "said to dry well." He also calls it particularly well adapted to the market because it is very little subject to spot, does not readily bruise, and is beautiful.

Subtypes / Variants

Not described in source.

Other

Lindley cites Forsyth's Treatise, ed. 7, p. 112, and the Horticultural Society's Fruit Catalogue, no. 550. Bunyard cites Ronalds, p. 10.