Core! SA’s oldest apple tree found on Table Mountain

27 April 2017 - 14:06 By Dave Chambers
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Tru-Cape new varietal expert Buks Nel and quality assurance manager Henk Griessel with the ancient apple tree on Table Mountain.
Tru-Cape new varietal expert Buks Nel and quality assurance manager Henk Griessel with the ancient apple tree on Table Mountain.
Image: SUPPLIED

South Africa’s most elevated apple tree might also be its oldest.

The tree is in the garden of a South African Mountain Club hut on Table Mountain‚ originally the home of a dam engineer who is understood to have planted it‚ possibly as long ago as 1904.

It was found by Buks Nel and Henk Griessel‚ of Somerset West‚ during research for their book Apples in the Early Days at The Cape. They showed it to a varietal expert from the Department of Agriculture‚ Forestry and Fishing‚ Hennie Venter.

“It certainly is a very old tree although we cannot say exactly how old. It might be younger than it looks as it has lived in very harsh conditions‚” said Venter.

He was unable to identify the tree‚ which has survived at an altitude of 760m‚ but Griessel said there was a historical clue.

“In 1723‚ Francois Valentijn reported seeing three apple trees in the Company’s Garden. One of them he named the aagtenappel. When we compare historic illustrations of the aagtenappel we see many similarities to the fruit from the tree on top of Table Mountain.”

Nel and Griessel work for Tru-Cape‚ the largest marketer of South African apples and pears‚ and were the driving forces behind the company’s heritage orchard in Grabouw.

“We wanted to preserve the genetic materials of South African apples and pears‚ no longer in commercial production and at risk of being forgotten‚” said Griessel.

They have secured an example from the Netherlands of the “wijnappel”‚ the first apple recorded in the diary of the first Dutch Commander of the Fleet and Settlement on April 17 1662‚ 10 years after Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival.

It is in quarantine and will be planted in the orchard in 2020.

-TMG Digital/TimesLIVE

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