Red Fleshed Apples -
Pendragon

This is a deeply pigmented red fleshed apple variety from Cornwall. The wood and leaves are red-stained, and the fruit has some resemblance to the redfleshed 'Sops in Wine', but it has a different shape and is less scented.

The fruit is exceptionally dark, and the flavour is OK without being excessively acidic. My tree blossoms rather late; at the same timie as King Edward VII, which is unusual for a redfleshed apple; most of them except Weirouge and Roter Mond have their flowers at the start of the blossom season.

It would probably add quite well to a cider.

Tasting notes .... similar flavour to Burford's Redflesh but gentler; less acidic; less astringent, and a reasonably acceptable eating apple. Weirouge, by way of comparison (also pictured below) is softer, sweeter and less acidic, and is being grown commercially as an eating apple in Italy.


Blossom

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Fruit

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First photo: Pendragon; second picture: Weirouge at top, Pendragon underneath. Click on the thumbnail pictures for the detail.

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UPDATE....during March 2012 I was contacted by James Evans, discoverer of 'Pendragon', who writes as follows:

..... This is a very interesting variety which I discovered as a single tree about thirty years ago; named for our own purposes and got into cultivation via some local nurseries. When I found the Pendragon (in Cornwall) the owner thought it was poisonous and didn't even realise that it was an apple! I ate one in front of her and suffered no ill effects. (Photo below sent by JE)

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