Cultivar 242: Mcintosh

McIntosh is a dessert apple of the Fameuse type. It has long been valued for high fruit quality, strong color, and good handling and storage.[S3] Sources place its origin in Ontario, Canada. Early pomological description says the tree is vigorous, spreading, and a good annual bearer.[S3] Later prairie and market sources treat McIntosh as a benchmark apple. They describe it as popular, commercially important, and influential enough to remain visible in grower literature and breeding pedigrees.[S4] [S6]

Early descriptive work describes the fruit as above medium to large, roundish oblate to somewhat truncated, with a yellow ground nearly covered by brilliant crimson and a heavy blue bloom.[S3] The flesh is described as snow white, crisp, very tender, juicy, aromatic, and subacid, with very good quality.[S3] Other sources also group McIntosh among large fruited apples with good handling and storage properties, though one later market history notes its soft flesh compared with newer, firmer apples.[S2] [S7] [S6]

Season and keeping reports come from both descriptive and classification sources. A detailed early bulletin gives its season as December to January, while the classification key places it in early winter.[S3] The same early source describes it as highly perfumed and very good for eating.[S3]

Tree habit is one of its clear older strengths. The tree is described as vigorous, with a spreading head and regular annual bearing.[S3] Prairie sources, however, draw a sharp line between fruit quality and winter survival. Saskatchewan hort facts state plainly that apples such as McIntosh, despite their quality and storage ability, will not survive very long there because they lack resistance to severe winter low temperatures.[S2] [S7] South Dakota nursery listings show it was still offered commercially in that broader northern region, but prairie recommendation literature treats it as less hardy than cultivars bred specifically for severe prairie winters.[S1] [S2]

McIntosh also matters as breeding material, but that is separate from its own origin. University of Saskatchewan ancestry work identifies it as one of the important founders in advanced prairie apple selections, contributing 14.6 percent of traced ancestry.[S4] Prairie Fruit Breeding Project tables show McIntosh used repeatedly as a parent in later crosses, including Duchess x McIntosh, Trail x McIntosh, and other combinations.[S5] Those records show later breeding use, not McIntosh's own parentage.[S5]

Historically, McIntosh became very popular on the prairies as fruit from other regions became more available, even as local breeders worked to replace tender commercial apples with hardier prairie adapted kinds.[S6] In that sense, it stands as both a classic quality apple and one of the reference cultivars cold climate breeders had to match or surpass in flavor, storage, and market appeal.[S2] [S6]

Summary source basis

• S1: Nursery Plants Available from South Dakota Nurseries
• S2: HortFactsAppleCultivars CStushnoff 1985
• S3: A Study of Northwestern Apples
• S4: ANCESTRY OF APPLE SELECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN
• S5: PrairieFruitBreedingDoc
• S6: History of Commercial Apple Production on the Prairie
• S7: hortfacts stushnoff

This summary currently draws chiefly from A Study of Northwestern Apples, with 6 additional supporting sources linked below.

Featured source descriptions

“Cavity obtuse, wide, regular, with a trace of russet; stem short to medium, stout; basin smooth, rather shallow, abrupt; calyx closed, segments connivent.”
— ^[1]

“Fruit roundish oblate to roundish truncated, slightly irregular and obscurely angular, highly perfumed.”
— ^[1]

“Dots many, obscure, minute, white.”
— ^[1]

“McIntosh is presented as a high-quality, large-fruited apple with good handling and storage properties, but it is said not to survive very long in Saskatchewan because it lacks resistance to severe winter low temperatures.”
— ^[5]

Direct parent cultivars

• No direct linked parent cultivars promoted yet.

Parentage claim text

• No direct breeding_cross claim text yet.

Derived or downstream cultivar links

• Dolgo (lineage link)

Source-story quotations

• Mcintosh ( Mcintosh Red )-Achoice variety of the Fameuse type ; origin, Ontario, Canada; tree vigorous, with spreading head, a good annual bearer-Fruit above medium to large, roundish oblate to roundish truncated, slightly irregular and obscurely angular, highly perfumed ; surface very smooth, polished, yellow, almost A Study of Northwestern Apples, p73
• Mcintosh ( Mcintosh Red )-Achoice variety of the Fameuse type ; origin, Ontario, Canada; tree vigorous, with spreading head, a good annual bearer-Fruit above medium to large, roundish oblate to roundish truncated, slightly irregular and obscurely angular, highly perfumed ; surface very smooth, polished, yellow, almost A Study of Northwestern Apples, p73
• Mcintosh ( Mcintosh Red )-Achoice variety of the Fameuse type ; origin, Ontario, Canada; tree vigorous, with spreading head, a good annual bearer-Fruit above medium to large, roundish oblate to roundish truncated, slightly irregular and obscurely angular, highly perfumed ; surface very smooth, polished, yellow, almost A Study of Northwestern Apples, p73
• Mcintosh ( Mcintosh Red )-Achoice variety of the Fameuse type ; origin, Ontario, Canada; tree vigorous, with spreading head, a good annual bearer-Fruit above medium to large, roundish oblate to roundish truncated, slightly irregular and obscurely angular, highly perfumed ; surface very smooth, polished, yellow, almost A Study of Northwestern Apples, p73

Taxonomy context: No family-tree context surfaced yet.

Related cultivars mentioned in source context