Cox's Orange Pippin Explained

'Cox's Orange Pippin'
Genus:Malus
Species:Malus domestica
Hybrid:'Margil' X 'Rosemary Russet'
Cultivar:'Cox's Orange Pippin'
Origin:United Kingdom, 1830

Cox's Orange Pippin, in Britain often referred to simply as Cox, is an apple cultivar first grown in 1825, at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, England, by the retired brewer and horticulturist Richard Cox.

Though the parentage of the cultivar is unknown, Ribston Pippin seems a likely candidate. DNA analysis of major apple pedigrees has suggested Margil as the parent of Cox, with Ribston Pippin being another Margil seedling.[1] The variety was introduced for sale by the 1850s by Charles Turner, and grown commercially from the 1860s, particularly in the Vale of Evesham in Worcestershire, and later in Kent. A paper by Howard et al seems to suggest that the Cox Orange Pippin is a hybrid between the Cultivars: Rosemary Russet and Margil based on the SNP data 7

Description and uses

'Cox's Orange Pippin' is highly regarded for its excellent flavour and attractive appearance. The apples are of medium size, orange-red in colour, deepening to bright red and mottled with carmine over a deep yellow background. The flesh is very aromatic, yellow-white, fine-grained, crisp, and very juicy. Cox's flavour is sprightly subacid, with hints of cherry and anise, becoming softer and milder with age. When ripe apples are shaken, the seeds make a rattling sound as they are only loosely held in the apple's flesh.[2]

Cox's Orange Pippin is often blended with other varieties in the production of cider.

Cultivation

According to the Institute of Food Research,[4] Cox's Orange Pippin accounts for over 50% of the UK acreage of dessert apples. The tree is a moderate grower and is annually productive. However, it can be difficult to grow in many environments, and tends to be susceptible to diseases such as scab, mildew, and canker, so it is rarely grown commercially in North America.[5] Cox's Orange Pippin is also grown in Belgium and in the Netherlands, countries with a climate similar to that of Great Britain. In addition to the cultivation of Cox sports, apple breeders have hybridised Cox with other varieties to improve vigour, disease resistance, and yield, while attempting to retain the unique qualities of Cox's flavour.[6]

Typical crop yield in kg
Year Rootstock M27 Rootstock M9 Rootstock M26
3 1 2.5 1.7
4 2.6 3.4 2.6
5 35 5
6 8.6 15 18.3

Sports

A number of sports of Cox's Orange Pippin have been discovered over subsequent years and propagated. These retain "Cox" in their names, e.g., Cherry Cox, Crimson Cox, King Cox, and Queen Cox.

Sports
Name Origin Discovered / Introduced
BledisloeNew Zealand1932/1934
Cherry Cox Denmark 1942/
Cox La Vera Netherlands 1986/
Cox Orange Kortegaard Denmark 1914/
Crimson Cox Herefordshire, England c. 1913 / c. 1928
King Cox Worcestershire, England
Queen Cox Berkshire, England
Mendocino Cox Northern California, USA

Descendant cultivars

Cultivar name (female parent × male parent)

Sports (mutations)

A number of Sports of Cox's Orange Pippin have been selected.

References

10 Howard, N. P., Micheletti, D., Luby, J. J., Durel, C. E., Denancé, C., Muranty, H., … Albach, D. C. (2022). Pedigree reconstruction for triploid apple cultivars using single nucleotide polymorphism array data. Plants People Planet, (March), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10313

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Muranty. Hélène. Denancé. Caroline. Feugey. Laurence. Crépin. Jean-Luc. Barbier. Yves. Tartarini. Stefano. Ordidge. Matthew. Troggio. Michela. Lateur. Marc. Nybom. Hilde. Paprstein. Frantisek. 2020-01-02. Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm. BMC Plant Biology. 20. 1. 2. 10.1186/s12870-019-2171-6. 31898487 . 6941274 . 1471-2229. free.
  2. http://www.thefoodcoach.com.au/food.asp?Action=View&FoodID=305 The Food Coach: Healthy Food Database
  3. Petzold Herbert, Apfelsorten, 1990
  4. Web site: Apple facts . 2009-11-01 . 2013-11-12 . https://web.archive.org/web/20131112181421/http://www.ifr.ac.uk/info/society/spotlight/apples.htm . dead .
  5. Web site: United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service . 2012-02-09 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120210190800/http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/ . 2012-02-10 . dead .
  6. http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=224_13 Apple Breeding in New Zealand
  7. Book: Obstsorten – Atlas. Silbereisen. Robert. Götz. Gerhard. Hartmann. Walter. Tambour. Gisela. Eberle. Christl. Ulmer (Eugen). 1996. 9783800155378.
  8. K. M. Evans, A. Patocchi, F. Rezzonico, F. Mathis, C. E. Durel, F. Fernández-Fernández, A. Boudichevskaia, F. Dunemann, M. Stankiewicz-Kosyl, L. Gianfranceschi, M. Komjanc, M. Lateur, M. Madduri, Y. Noordijk, W. E. van de Weg (2011). Genotyping of pedigreed apple breeding material with a genome-covering set of SSRs: trueness-to-type of cultivars and their parentages . Molecular Breeding 28 (4): 535–547.
  9. Web site: Apple (Malus domestica 'Mendocino Cox') in the Apples Database — Garden.org.

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