A ‘living museum’ planted by researchers at Aberystwyth University is contributing to the survival of varieties of apples and pears.  More than 60 historic Welsh apple and pear varieties feature in a new heritage orchard established at the University’s Gogerddan campus by plant breeder and geneticist Dr Danny Thorogood from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Science (IBERS).

The orchard was created as part of a National Lottery Heritage Fund project managed by the Welsh Perry and Cider Society. It will ensure scientists and growers have access to a genetic resource for all of Wales’s ancient varieties, protecting important historic species from extinction.

Dr Thorogood: “There are around 7,500 varieties of eating apple grown all over the world, something which many people don’t realise as supermarkets normally only sell a few well-known varieties such as Granny Smith, Gala or Braeburn. The UK actually has more than 3,600 registered apple varieties recorded in the National Fruit Collection (NFC)."

"There are around 100 varieties from Wales known to exist today – many of these can be found in the University’s heritage orchard. We have apple varieties such as Frederick and Cummy Norman both used for cider making and Little Cross Huffcap perry pear named after the farm where it was discovered in Monmouthshire.”

“The project identified trees from all over Wales that were found to be unique, using a DNA fingerprinting technique. These trees were then propagated and planted in the heritage orchard and replica orchards at other sites in Wales. We even identified four old trees on the University’s land that we thought might be unique, so we cross-referenced samples against an existing national DNA database – we discovered that two of these trees were unmatched and had never been registered in the UK before.”

The heritage orchard at Aberystwyth University is one of four sites in Wales created as part of the Welsh Perry and Cider Society’s National Lottery Heritage Fund project ‘The Heritage of Orchards and Cider Making in Wales,’ with additional funding provided by the Aviva Community Fund.

Source: wales247.co.uk