Melba

Raised at Ottawa from McIntosh seed sown in 1898, first fruiting in 1908; a parent of at least ten later apples

Melba, painted by Mary Daisy Arnold in 1924 for the US Department of Agriculture. Mary Daisy Arnold. U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Rare and Special Collections, National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, MD 20705. Source; public domain.

Origin: Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada, 1898
Raised by: W. T. Macoun
Parentage: McIntosh × Tetofsky Raised from naturally pollinated McIntosh seed, as its raiser recorded; McIntosh confirmed as a parent by SNP data (Muranty and others, 2020). Tetofsky was identified as the other parent from SNP data by Larsen and others (2025); older pedigree records give Liveland Raspberry.
Uses: Dessert
Picked: August, in Brogdale, Kent
Keeps: Short shelf life
Skin: Pale yellow with pinkish stripes and flecks and a white bloom; aromatic
Flesh: Very white, firm, crisp and juicy
Flavour: Refreshing and vinous; subacid and sweet
Ploidy: Diploid

History

Melba was raised at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa by W. T. Macoun^1,2. In 1898 Macoun, expecting natural pollination in an orchard of 400 to 500 named varieties to produce every sort of combination of characters, had seed saved from some of the best-flavoured apples then fruiting there, McIntosh among them². Seedlings from this and later sowings were planted out from 1901 until about 2,000 trees stood in the orchard². By the time of his 1916 bulletin 1,211 had fruited and 99 of the best had been named, and the largest share of promising ones had come from McIntosh, Langford Beauty, Northern Spy and Wealthy².

Melba grew from McIntosh seed sown in the autumn of 1898; its tree was planted in the spring of 1901, first fruited in 1908 and was first described in 1909², the year given for its introduction^1,3. In 1927 the American Pomological Society awarded it the Silver Wilder Medal¹.

Because the seed came from natural pollination, Macoun knew only the mother². SNP data published in 2020 confirm McIntosh as a parent⁴, and SNP data analysed by Larsen and colleagues identify the other parent as Tetofsky⁵.

The USDA’s 1996 germplasm record quotes Coutts (1991) on Melba: “Tender, but good breeder”³. In the 2020 SNP study it appears as a parent of ten cultivars, among them Jamba (with James Grieve), Norland, Parkland, Patterson and Silva⁴. The National Fruit Collection lists two sports, Red Melba and Hunter Melba¹.

The fruit

The fruit is of medium size, 57–63 by 44–51 mm in the USDA record, flattish to truncate-conical and ribbed on the body and at the eye^1,3. The pale yellow skin is marked with pinkish stripes and flecks under a white bloom^1,3, and the skin itself is aromatic¹. The very white flesh is firm, crisp and juicy, with what the National Fruit Collection calls “a refreshing vinous flavour”¹; the USDA describes it as subacid and sweet³.

It is an early apple with a short shelf life³. At Brogdale, Kent, it begins to flower around 3 May and is picked in mid-August¹. Melba is diploid^4,5.

Where the sources disagree

The other parent. Macoun recorded only the mother, McIntosh, since the seed came from natural pollination². The pedigree records collated by Muranty and colleagues name Liveland Raspberry as the other parent⁴, while SNP data analysed by Larsen and colleagues point to Tetofsky⁵.

Family tree

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

Melba Canada, 1898
- Seed parent McIntosh Canada, 1811
- Pollen parent Tetofsky

Offspring in the atlas

Beverly Hills × Early McIntosh; United States, 1939
Caravel × Crimson Beauty (Canada); Canada, by 1964
Jamba 69 × James Grieve; Germany, 1954
June Crewdson × Devonshire Quarrenden; United Kingdom, by 1943
Pirja × Huvitus; Finland, 1961
Ranger × Crimson Beauty (Canada); Canada, by 1964
Red Melba Canada, about 1936
Redfree × Raritan; United States, by 1981
Silva × Stenbock; Sweden, 1945

10 varieties in the atlas descend from Melba.

Where Melba came from.

Sources

Melba (accession 1925-021), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Raised in 1898 by W.T. Macoun at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, Canada. Introduced in 1909"; the Silver Wilder Medal of the American Pomological Society in 1927; firm, crisp, white, juicy flesh "with a refreshing vinous flavour"; "Skin is aromatic"; parentage "McIntosh x Unknown"; the sports Red Melba and Hunter Melba; a dessert apple, ribbed on body and at eye, pale yellow with pinkish stripes and flecks, flesh very white; 10% flowering on 3 May and picking in mid August at the collection.
The Apple in Canada: its cultivation and improvement (Bulletin 86), pp. 16 and 32, W. T. Macoun, Dominion Horticulturist, Department of Agriculture, Canada; Canadiana microfiche CIHM 82881, Internet Archive, 1916. Supports: p. 16: in 1898 Macoun had seed saved from some of the best-flavoured apples then fruiting in the orchard of the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, which held "between 400 and 500 named varieties", McIntosh among them, expecting natural pollination to combine their characters; the seedlings of these and of later sowings planted out from 1901 until about 2,000 trees; 1,211 fruited "during the past twelve years", 378 were being propagated for further test and 99 of the best had been named; the largest proportion of promising seedlings among those of McIntosh, Langford Beauty, Northern Spy and Wealthy. p. 32, "Names given to apples originated in the Horticultural Division": Melba, female parent McIntosh, seed sown in autumn 1898, tree planted in spring 1901, first fruiting 1908, fruit described "R. 1909, P. 111".
Plant Inventory No. 204, Part I (Plant Materials Introduced January 1 to June 30, 1995), p. 377: PI 589112, Melba, R. A. Norris (ed.), USDA Agricultural Research Service, 1996-08. Supports: developed by W. T. Macoun, Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa; "Pedigree - McIntosh x Raised 1898; intro: 1909"; size medium, "57-63;44-51mm"; shape flat to intermediate, rectangular to truncate-conic, ribbed on body and at eye; skin pale yellow with pinkish stripes and flecks, white bloom; flesh firm, crisp, very white; flavour subacid, sweet; season early; "Tender, but good breeder", Coutts (1991); "Shelf life short".
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 files 1, 3 and 6, 2020. Supports: Additional file 6 (Table S5): Melba and McIntosh a parent–offspring duo with no Mendelian errors, McIntosh the parent, with Melba's documented parents given as McIntosh and Liveland Raspberry; Melba the parent in duos with Maikki, Norland, Parkland, Patterson, Pirja, Samo, Silva and Carrol; Additional file 3 (Table S3): Melba a parent of Jamba, with James Grieve (both documented parents confirmed), and of June Crewdson, with Devonshire Quarrenden; Additional file 1 (Table S1): Melba diploid, dated 1898.
Cultivar fingerprinting and SNP-based pedigree reconstruction in Danish heritage apple cultivars utilizing genotypic data from multiple germplasm collections in the world, Bjarne Larsen and others, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 72: 2397–2411, with supplementary Table S5, 2025. Supports: Table S5: the SNP-confirmed parents of Melba (MUNQ 167) given as McIntosh (Parent1, the mother where pedigree records exist) and Tetofsky; ploidy 2 (diploid).