Cortland (apple)

'Cortland'
Hybrid parentage	'McIntosh' × 'Ben Davis'
Cultivar	'Cortland'
Origin	Geneva, New York, USA, 1898

'Cortland' is a cultivar of apple, that was raised at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, New York, USA in 1898.^[1] The apple was named after nearby Cortland County, New York. It is among the fifteen most popular in the United States.^[2]

Breeding

After the many attributes of McIntosh were discovered, plant breeders began crossing it with other varieties to enhance its traits. One of the earliest was the 'Cortland'. Its flavor is sweet compared to McIntosh, and it has a flush of crimson against a pale yellow background sprinkled with short, dark red stripes and gray-green dots.

Cortland has very white flesh and is an excellent dessert apple.

Patented mutants (sports)

The original Cortland variety, introduced in 1915 by the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, produced apples which were 20—30% red, and was not patented.^[3] Since then, several sports have been identified and patented:

Date	"Inventor"	Marketed as	Mutated From	Assignee	Habit	Pattern	Earlier	Color	Plant Patent Number
Jan 19, 1982	LaMont	Lamont, Starkspur	standard	Stark Bro's Nursery	spur	striped	same	same	US plant patent 4800
Aug 30, 1983	Nicklin	Redcort	standard	Hilltop Nursery	standard	striped	2 wk.	90% red	US plant patent 5095
Oct 7, 1997	Hartenhof	NS-911	standard	Adams County Nursery	standard	striped	same	red overall	US plant patent 10049

Descendant cultivars

• Birgit Bonnier (apple)

Footnotes

1. National Fruit Collection, retrieved 19 April 2016
2. Apple varieties by US Apple Association
3. US plant patent 5095