Description
Alexander, or Aporta, is a large, sweet-tart, juicy apple with a red-orange blush on a pale yellow skin. Its crisp white flesh has a hint of yellow. Alexander is best used in cooking, although it is also good eaten fresh. It is a mid-season apple that does not store particularly well.
Discovered: 1700s, Ukraine
Parentage: Unknown
Harvest: Midseason
History
Dating back to 1700s Ukraine, Alexander arrived in England in 1817, and was later introduced in America by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society between 1830 and 1835, with three other Eastern European varieties, Duchess of Oldenburg, Red Astrachan, and Tetofsky.
Alexander is still grown by its original name, Aporta, in parts of Kazakhstan, where the modern apple originated, and where there still are primeval forests of wild apple trees of every shape and size, bursting with genetic material. Alexander, its parentage unknown, was renamed in honor of Czar Alexander I (1777-1825).