Apple leaf rust (Photo courtesy of Margaret Bourke Blanco)


Jennifer Hudspeth’s quick eye and consultation with Extension Agent Leon Duncan revealed that our newly planted apple trees suffer from a common blight called Apple Leaf Rust. It is unsightly but apparently fairly common and not fatal—although we may end up with leafless trees well before autumn. Doesn’t it seem like modern varieties of trees and other plants are lot touchier than the plants and trees of our childhood? As a kid I recall eating (actually stealing and then eating) apples from Mrs. Siebold’s backyard orchard but was never aware that trees might catch a sniffle or something more serious than a worm or two. Maybe we’re being punished today for my swiping of yesterday (certainly a thorny theological question).

When George Washington was a boy there were 7,000 varieties of apples grown in the Continental United States. Today, there are about 196 commercially available apples. These apples are chosen for their ability to resist bruising, size and color conformity, and shelf-life. I wonder what those other 6, 804 types of apples tasted like?