The World of Apples

Apple varieties, Bahamas

Dorsett Golden

Grown from a seed planted at Nassau in 1953 and called a Golden Delicious seedling; DNA makes it a child of Anna

History

Dorsett Golden grew from a seed planted in 1953 by Irene Dorsett at her home in Nassau, on New Providence in the Bahamas1,2. It was said to be a chance seedling of Golden Delicious2, and the National Fruit Collection still records Golden Delicious as its parent1. In 1980 E. P. Miller and W. B. Sherman of the University of Florida doubted this: chilling is governed by many genes, and among thousands of Golden Delicious seedlings they had found none with so low a requirement2. They made a case instead for the Israeli breeding of Abba Stein at Kibbutz Ein Shemer, guessing, in what they called “pure speculation”, that a traveller had carried seed from Israel to Nassau2,6.

DNA has since pointed the same way. A 2020 study of SNP data inferred that Dorsett Golden is an offspring of the Israeli apple Anna and of an unknown apple descended from Douce de Sfax, a Tunisian variety, and Golden Delicious, although the recorded dates, 1953 for Dorsett Golden and 1954 for Anna, contradict that order5. A 2026 review adds that an earlier marker study grouped it with the apples of Stein’s programme6.

It reached the United States in 1961, and Newcomb Nursery propagated 2,000 to 3,000 trees around Miami in the 1960s2. The University of Florida began testing it in 1973, and Miller and Sherman reckoned that about a third of the half-million apple trees sold in Florida between 1971 and 1981 were Dorsett Golden2. In 2022 it was one of only three apples, Anna among them, that the university recommended for the state out of 43 tested4.

The fruit

Miller and Sherman described a round to slightly oblong apple averaging 150 g, a little smaller than Anna, pale to light yellow with a pinkish or light red blush over 10 to 40 per cent of the skin2. The flesh is medium firm and slightly crisp, with a mild aroma, medium sweetness and a slightly subacid taste2; the University of Florida likens the fruit to Golden Delicious4. In Florida it ripens from late May through June and keeps six to eight weeks under refrigeration4. At the National Fruit Collection in Kent it is large, about 77 mm wide, striped and mottled red over a whitish-green ground, and is picked in mid-October1.

Growing

Miller and Sherman estimated its chilling requirement at about 300 hours, though it fruits satisfactorily on 200 or slightly fewer2. Where winters are too mild for dormancy, as at Miami, the tree may grow as an evergreen, flowering and fruiting through the year but setting little fruit2. It is precocious, flowering in its second year, and its spur-type tree is moderately vigorous and upright-spreading2,4. It is not self-fertile2. Because it flowers with Anna, which sets almost no fruit with its own pollen, it was recommended in 1979 as Anna’s pollinator3. It is highly resistant to powdery mildew, to which Anna is very susceptible2.

Where the sources disagree

  • Parentage. Tradition and the National Fruit Collection make it a seedling of Golden Delicious1,2; Miller and Sherman thought Israeli germplasm likelier2; SNP data make it a child of Anna, with Golden Delicious as a grandparent5.
  • Dates. The DNA result makes Dorsett Golden, dated 1953, the offspring of Anna, dated 1954, an order the study notes the dates contradict5.
  • Introduction. Miller and Sherman have it brought into the United States in 19612; the National Fruit Collection says it was introduced in 19641.
  • Chilling. About 300 hours2, or 250 to 300 hours4.

Family tree

Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents, as the entries in the atlas record them.

  • Dorsett Golden Bahamas, 1953
    • Parent Anna Israel, 1954
      • Parent Orleans United States, 1912
        • Seed parent Deacon Jones
        • Pollen parent Delicious United States, 1872
Anna Dorsett Golden
Where Dorsett Golden came from. The lines lead to its parents: Anna (Israel).

Sources

  1. Dorsett Golden (accession 1969 - 036), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Originated in the Bahamas in 1953 at the home of Mrs Irene Dorsett, Nassau, New Providence Islands"; "introduced in 1964"; parentage "Golden Delicious x Unknown"; a dessert apple, "sweet and juicy with a light aromatic flavour"; characterisation at Brogdale: large, globose conical, 74.30 mm high and 77.03 mm wide, whitish green ground colour with red striped or mottled over-colour, cream flesh; picked in mid-October.
  2. Origin and description of 'Dorsett Golden' apple, E. P. Miller and W. B. Sherman, Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society 93: 108–109, 1980. Supports: a seed planted in 1953 by Mrs I. Dorsett of Nassau, New Providence Islands, Bahamas (after Brooks and Olmo, 1972); "said to be a chance seedling of 'Golden Delicious'", which the authors doubted because chilling is controlled by many genes and they had seen thousands of Golden Delicious seedlings without one near its low chilling requirement; "a strong case" for an origin in the germplasm of Mr Stein at Ein Shemer or another Israeli breeding programme, and their "pure speculation" that a traveller brought seed from Israel to Nassau; introduced into the United States in 1961, with 2,000 to 3,000 trees propagated around Miami in the 1960s by Newcomb Nursery; obtained for testing at Gainesville in 1973; about one-third of the half-million apple trees produced and sold in Florida between 1971 and 1981; pale to light yellow fruit with a pinkish or light red blush over 10 to 40%; about 150 g, slightly smaller than Anna, round to slightly oblong; flesh medium firm and slightly crisp, mild aroma, medium sweetness, slightly subacid; chilling estimated at about 300 hours, fruiting satisfactorily on 200 hours or slightly less; evergreen growth, flowering and fruiting through the year with sparse fruit set, where winters are too mild, as at Miami; flowering in the second year even on seedling rootstock; not self-fertile; moderately vigorous, upright-spreading spur-type trees; highly resistant to powdery mildew, unlike the very susceptible Anna.
  3. Self-unfruitfulness of 'Anna' apple, T. E. Crocker, W. B. Sherman and R. J. Knight Jr, Fruit Varieties Journal 33(2): 65–66, American Pomological Society, 1979. Supports: Anna "highly self-unfruitful", with 0.3% fruit set when selfed; Dorsett Golden cross-fruitful with Anna, "consistently matched 'Anna' in bloom period" and was "recommended as the preferred pollenizer".
  4. Low-Chill Apple Cultivars for North Florida and North Central Florida (HS764/MG368), Peter C. Andersen, Muhammad A. Shahid and Kevin Folta, UF/IFAS Extension, University of Florida, 2022. Supports: one of three cultivars, with Anna, recommended for Florida out of 43 tested; chilling requirement of 250–300 hours; Anna and Dorsett Golden pollinize each other; fruit ripening from late May through June; six to eight weeks of keeping with refrigeration; fruit resembling Golden Delicious; spur-type trees, upright and semi-spreading.
  5. Using whole-genome SNP data to reconstruct a large multi-generation pedigree in apple germplasm, Hélène Muranty and others, BMC Plant Biology 20: 2, with Additional file 1 (Table S1) and Additional file 6 (Table S5), 2020. Supports: "we inferred 'Golden Dorsett' to be an offspring of 'Anna' and an unknown parent, itself deriving from a cross between 'Douce de Sfax', a Tunisian cultivar likely to have been selected for LCR, and 'Golden Delicious'"; "dates contradicted the orientation" of Golden Dorsett as the offspring of Anna; Golden Dorsett (sample from the Volcani Center's collection) dated 1953 and Anna 1954, both diploid (Table S1).
  6. Low-chill apples: genetics of crisis and opportunity in a valuable fruit crop, Mujahid Hussain, Javier Rivera and Kevin M. Folta, Fruit Research 6: e041, Maximum Academic Press, 2026. Supports: Abba Stein, apple breeder at Kibbutz Ein Shemer; the hypothesis of an Israeli origin "bolstered by analysis of its molecular markers, showing that it clusters with other Abba Stein breeding program genotypes" (citing Trainin and others, 2016).