Cultivar 115: Anisim

Anisim is a Russian apple known as a hardy northern fall to early winter variety with dark red fruit and a long history under several names in the American Northwest. Early South Dakota and Minnesota sources treated it as important enough for repeated trial and recommendation. Later prairie references still place it in hardy testing at Rosthern in the 1930s. [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4]

Older descriptive sources say it was imported from Russia and circulated in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota under names including Good Peasant, Borsdorfer, Peterson's Anisim, and Swedish Borsdorf before Anisim became the stable name. One early commission source went further and used Anisim as the name of an officially defined group of Russian apples, showing how prominent the cultivar had become in northern pomology. N. E. Hansen also wrote that he saw the true Anisim at the Kiev agricultural fair under a Russian name meaning Beauty. [S3]

The fruit is described as below medium to medium in size, roundish to conic, with a greenish ground almost fully covered by very dark crimson or dark red. It often has a heavy bluish bloom and minute pale dots. The flesh is white to greenish white, fine grained, juicy, and pleasantly subacid, with flavor rated good. Its color was repeatedly singled out as one of its most attractive traits. Sources place its season from fall into early winter. One description gives November to January, and another calls it an early winter apple. [S3]

The tree was described as a strong grower in both nursery and orchard, upright when young and more spreading with age, with long slender limbs and a pronounced shoulder that several observers considered characteristic. It was also called a prodigious bearer and one of the very best nursery trees grown. These traits help explain why Anisim was valued not just for fruit, but also as an orchard tree worth propagating and testing widely. [S3]

Its cold climate reputation is well supported, though the sources do not use modern hardiness zones. South Dakota Extension listed Anisim among recommended fall apples in all three state fruit zones, including the northern plains sections. Earlier South Dakota bulletins placed it among Russian varieties for trial and among the hardiest apples worth saving seed from for breeding. Minnesota and northwestern recommendation lists also kept it in circulation for further trial and general northern use. Prairie Canada references add Rosthern test evidence from the 1930s. [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4]

Anisim matters as both a cultivar and a reference point in hardy Russian apple history. It appears in classification work, recommendation lists, and seed saving for future breeding, which suggests growers saw it as more than a curiosity. It was a useful northern apple with recognizable fruit, a distinctive tree, and enough reputation to leave a naming trail across the prairie and upper Midwest record. [S3] [S4]

Summary source basis

• S1: Edible Apples in Prairie Canada
• S2: South Dakota Fruit Garden
• S3: A Study of Northwestern Apples
• S4: Fruit Culture

This summary currently draws chiefly from A Study of Northwestern Apples, with 4 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Right-margin hardiness code is unclear in the scan.”
— ^[4]

“Rosthern test 1930s. H3.”
— ^[4]

“A. G. Tuttle included Anisim among the best six varieties he had tested, in order of value.”
— ^[1]

“Listed under Fall Apples main crop in all three zones; suggested counts are 1, 1, and 2.”
— ^[5]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

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Derived or downstream cultivar links

• No derived or downstream lineage links yet.

Source-story quotations

• Anisim-Origin, Russia. Tree a strong grower in nursery and orchard. The beautiful color of the fruit attracts favorable attention. Fruit below medium, roundish conical, slightly angular; surface greenish yellow, covered almost wholly with a beautiful dark crimson, with heavy blue bloom; dots white minute; cavity regulaA Study of Northwestern Apples, p24
• Anisim-Origin, Russia. Tree a strong grower in nursery and orchard. The beautiful color of the fruit attracts favorable attention. Fruit below medium, roundish conical, slightly angular; surface greenish yellow, covered almost wholly with a beautiful dark crimson, with heavy blue bloom; dots white minute; cavity regulaA Study of Northwestern Apples, p24
• Anisim-Origin, Russia. Tree a strong grower in nursery and orchard. The beautiful color of the fruit attracts favorable attention. Fruit below medium, roundish conical, slightly angular; surface greenish yellow, covered almost wholly with a beautiful dark crimson, with heavy blue bloom; dots white minute; cavity regulaA Study of Northwestern Apples, p24
• Anisim-Origin, Russia. Tree a strong grower in nursery and orchard. The beautiful color of the fruit attracts favorable attention. Fruit below medium, roundish conical, slightly angular; surface greenish yellow, covered almost wholly with a beautiful dark crimson, with heavy blue bloom; dots white minute; cavity regulaA Study of Northwestern Apples, p24

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context