The World of Apples

How many apple varieties are there?

There is no agreed figure. The numbers in circulation count different things: names printed over two centuries, samples kept in genebanks, or apples that DNA shows to be distinct.

Names on record

W. H. Ragan’s Nomenclature of the Apple, published by the US Department of Agriculture in 1905, set out to gather every apple name printed in American publications from 1804 to 19041. Ragan called it “far from complete”, listed synonyms as well as leading names, and expected some names to “prove to be synonyms of other varieties”1. A 2009 study put the number of unique named varieties in it at 6,6542. Daniel Bussey, who began extending Ragan’s register in 19802, published The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada in 20163: it lists 16,350 varieties that appeared in publications in the two countries up to 2000, with 9,700 synonyms, drawn from 1,650 sources4.

The round figures for the world are harder to trace: a University of Illinois Extension page gave 7,500 varieties grown in the world, 2,500 in the United States and 100 grown there commercially5, and a 2015 review of US apple genetic resources wrote of “more than 7,500 named apple varieties”6. The Illinois page gives no source, and the table the review cites beside the figure lists common cultivars grown in the United States5,7. The official site for the apples of Aomori, in Japan, gives about 15,000 for the world and about 2,000 for Japan, also without a source8.

Accessions in genebanks

Genebanks count accessions, the samples they hold9: international and local cultivars, breeding lines and wild species10, and sometimes seed11. In 2014 the database of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization recorded 63,033 accessions of apples and their wild relatives in 167 collections in 58 countries, 40,253 of them of the cultivated apple6,7. The genebank catalogue Genesys lists “almost 39,000” (October 2026)11. A survey begun in 2014 for a global conservation strategy gathered inventories from 38 institutions holding 31,349 accessions, about half the world total in the FAO’s records: half were international cultivars, a fifth local or historical ones and about a quarter wild species10.

Single collections are smaller: the UK National Fruit Collection lists 2,105 apple accessions (October 2026)12; the US Department of Agriculture’s collection at Geneva, New York, listed 2,829 in 2022, 1,426 of them the cultivated apple and the rest other species and hybrids13. An accession is not the same as a variety: a 2018 study of the UK collection counted 22 documented clones and sports of Cox’s Orange Pippin among its accessions, and 23 of Golden Delicious14.

What DNA shows

DNA fingerprinting shows how far names and trees part company: of 2,446 accessions from 14 European collections, a 2016 study found 405, or 16%, to duplicate others15. Some were known synonyms; some were translations, as White Transparent is Skleněné žluté, “yellow glass”, in Czech and Transparente Blanca in Spanish; and some names covered more than one apple, three different fingerprints turning up under Charles Ross15. Between 2009 and 2021 the German Fruit Genebank tested 7,890 trees at eight sites and found 1,404 distinct cultivars, each represented by between 1 and 73 samples16.

Each genotype found to be distinct can now be given a MUNQ code, for Malus UNiQue17. More than 20,000 apple accessions had been genotyped with the same markers by February 202618, and by September 2026 10,049 codes had been allocated, a total that includes many seedling trees19. DNA can also undercount: the markers do not tell a sport from the variety it arose on, though pomologists can16,18.

Where the sources disagree

  • Ragan’s catalogue. A 2002 magazine article credits it with “more than 14,000 different apple varieties”20; the 2009 study counts 6,654 unique named varieties in it2.
  • 16,000 for the United States. The description of Rowan Jacobsen’s book Apples of Uncommon Character says that “16,000 varieties existed in the United States alone” a century ago21; Bussey’s 16,350 listings include Canada, and every publication up to 20004.
  • 7,500 or 15,000 for the world. Neither figure comes with a source in the pages that give it5,6,7,8.
  • Varieties in commerce. The 2015 review says that 15 varieties gave 90% of US production in 20086; the 2009 study says that 11 cultivars make up over 90% of the apples sold in the United States2.
  • Names or apples. Comparing Ragan’s and Bussey’s lists with the 1,500 apple varieties offered by US nurseries in 2001, the 2009 study cautioned: “we do not know to what extent this naming actually represented genetically distinct cultivars”2.

Sources

  1. Nomenclature of the Apple: a catalogue of the known varieties referred to in American publications from 1804 to 1904, pp. 9–10: Introduction, W. H. Ragan, US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Bulletin 56; Internet Archive, 1905. Supports: the aim "to bring together in one comprehensive volume all known names that have appeared in the American literature of the apple", from 1804 to 1904; the catalogue "far from complete"; "some will doubtless prove to be synonyms of other varieties"; the catalogue includes "both leading names and synonyms".
  2. Identification of historic apple trees in the Southwestern United States and implications for conservation, Kanin J. Routson, Ann A. Reilley, Adam D. Henk and Gayle M. Volk, HortScience 44(3): 589–594; publisher's PDF in the Internet Archive, 2009. Supports: Ragan "lists 6654 unique named apple varieties" referenced in US literature from 1804 to 1904; Dan Bussey began expanding on Ragan's register in 1980; Kent Whealy's inventory of 2001 lists 1,500 apple varieties available through US nurseries; "we do not know to what extent this naming actually represented genetically distinct cultivars"; "11 apple cultivars account for over 90% of the apples sold in the United States".
  3. The illustrated history of apples in the United States and Canada (catalogue record), University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries. Supports: Daniel J. Bussey, edited by Kent Whealy, JAK KAW Press, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, ©2016, seven volumes.
  4. The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada: press release, JAK KAW Press. Supports: the set "documents all apple varieties that appear in publications in the United States and Canada through the year 2000": 16,350 varietal listings, 9,700 synonyms and 1,650 cited references, "two centuries of pomological literature on apples".
  5. Apple Facts (Apples and More), archived 18 July 2019, University of Illinois Extension; Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Supports: "7,500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world"; "2,500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States"; "100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States"; no source given.
  6. The vulnerability of US apple (Malus) genetic resources, Gayle M. Volk and others, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62: 765–794; USDA Agricultural Research Service, 2015. Supports: "more than 7,500 named apple varieties", with world production "dominated by only 10–20 cultivars" (citing Online Resource 5); "In the US, 15 varieties accounted for 90 % of apple production in 2008"; "In the FAO database, 167 Malus collections are present in 58 countries".
  7. The vulnerability of US apple (Malus) genetic resources: Online Resources 1–11, Gayle M. Volk and others, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62: 765–794, electronic supplementary material; Springer Nature, 2015. Supports: Online Resource 5, "Common apple cultivars grown in the U.S."; Online Resource 10, Malus in world collections "according to the FAO world collection database" (2014): 167 collections, 63,033 Malus accessions in all, 40,253 of them Malus domestica.
  8. りんごの品種 (apple varieties), （一社）青森県りんご対策協議会, official site for the apples of Aomori, Japan (aomori-ringo.or.jp). Supports: about 15,000 kinds of apple in the world and about 2,000 in Japan (世界では約15,000種、日本では約2,000種類); no source given.
  9. Fruit for the Future, National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: the collections "contain around 3,500 accessions (samples) of different fruit varieties".
  10. A global strategy for the conservation and use of apple genetic resources, pp. 23–24, Paula Bramel and Gayle M. Volk, Global Crop Diversity Trust, Bonn, 2019. Supports: a survey of apple collections "initiated late in 2014"; 38 institutions shared information on 31,349 Malus accessions, "about 50% of the total number of accessions conserved globally according to FAO WIEWS"; 50% international cultivars, 20% local or historical cultivars, 24% wild species, and 1,074 breeding lines.
  11. Apple, Genesys (genesys-pgr.org). Supports: "Genesys lists almost 39,000 accessions of various kinds of apple, including wild relatives"; "About 5% of the accessions are in the form of seeds" (read 26 October 2026).
  12. Accession A–Z: Apple, National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Apple Accessions 2105 matches" (read 26 October 2026).
  13. List of accessions in the USDA Apple Collection, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Plant Genetic Resources Unit, Geneva, New York, 15 August 2022. Supports: the list has 2,829 accessions, 1,426 of them Malus domestica and the rest other Malus species and hybrids (counted from the list).
  14. Genetic analysis of a major international collection of cultivated apple varieties reveals previously unknown historic heteroploid and inbred relationships, Matthew Ordidge and others, PLoS ONE 13(9): e0202405; PubMed Central, 12 September 2018. Supports: the UK National Fruit Collection, "over 2,000 selections of named cultivars and seedling varieties"; documented clones or sports in the collection (Table 1): 22 of Cox's Orange Pippin, 23 of Golden Delicious.
  15. Analysis of the genetic diversity and structure across a wide range of germplasm reveals prominent gene flow in apple at the European level, Jorge Urrestarazu and others, BMC Plant Biology 16: 130; PubMed Central, 8 June 2016. Supports: 2,446 accessions from 14 collections; 219 groups of redundancies and 405 redundant accessions, "16 % of redundancy"; confirmed synonyms and name translations, among them White Transparent, Skleněné žluté ("yellow glass") in Czech and Transparente Blanca in Spanish; homonymy, with three different SSR profiles under the name Charles Ross.
  16. Microsatellite/SSR dataset: characterization of apple cultivars of the German Fruit Genebank, Lea Broschewitz, Stefanie Reim, Henryk Flachowsky and Monika Höfer, Scientific Data 12: 75, 15 January 2025. Supports: 7,890 trees at eight partner locations; 8,184 samples analysed, giving "1,404 molecular groups that correspond to distinct apple cultivars"; from 1 to 73 samples per cultivar; "No molecular differentiation could be made between original cultivars and their mutations while the pomologists were able to distinguish them"; mutations "are also classified as independent cultivars", which the SSR profiles could not represent.
  17. Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm, Hélène Muranty and others, BMC Plant Biology 20: 2, 2 January 2020. Supports: each unique genotype given a code, "MUNQ, for Malus UNiQue genotype code".
  18. Malus/Pyrus WG report (2024–2025), Marc Lateur, chair, ECPGR Malus/Pyrus Working Group, 9 February 2026. Supports: the MUNQ database, with more than 20,000 apple accessions "genotyped with harmonized SSR markers"; mutations and sports "not detected by conventional molecular markers".
  19. Improvement of Fruit Tree Data Inclusion in EURISCO (FRUITTREEDATA): activity report, Matthew Ordidge and others, European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR), September 2026. Supports: "currently 10,049 MUNQ codes" allocated; the MUNQ system has "included numerous known and presumed seedling trees".
  20. Apples of Your Eye, Tim Hensley, Smithsonian Magazine, November 2002. Supports: Ragan's Nomenclature of the Apple, "which in 1905 cataloged more than 14,000 different apple varieties".
  21. Apples of Uncommon Character, Rowan Jacobsen (rowanjacobsen.com). Supports: the description of the book: "A century ago, 16,000 varieties existed in the United States alone".