Pepin Shafranny

Michurin's winter apple of 1907–15; SNP data name Scarlet Pearmain and Glogerovka as its parents, not those recorded

Pepin Shafranny at the National Fruit Collection, Brogdale. National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, via Wikimedia Commons. Source; Open Government Licence v2.0.

Origin: Michurinsk, Tambov Oblast, Russia, 1907
Raised by: I. V. Michurin
Parentage: Scarlet Pearmain × Glogerovka From SNP data: Muranty and others (2020) found Scarlet Pearmain to be a parent, and Larsen and others (2025) give Scarlet Pearmain and Glogerovka as its two parents, without saying which bore the seed. The recorded pedigree, Orleans Reinette × (Pepinka Litovskaya × Kitaika), does not agree with these data.
Uses: Dessert, Cooking
Keeps: Until February (Russian register), or until February or March, about 223 days, in a fruit store (VNIISPK)
Skin: Smooth and greasy; greenish to orange-yellow, mostly covered by a diffuse dark red flush with darker stripes, and many small pale dots
Flesh: Cream, firm to medium-firm, juicy and tender
Flavour: Sweet and vinous, with a delicate spicy aroma
Ploidy: Diploid
Also called: Pepin Shafrannyi; Pepin Shafrannyj

History

Pepin Shafranny (Пепин шафранный) is a winter apple raised by Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin at Michurinsk, in Russia’s Tambov region^1,2,3. The National Fruit Collection dates it to 1907¹; the Russian state register says it was obtained between 1907 and 1915². Its recorded pedigree is Orleans Reinette crossed with a hybrid of Pepinka Litovskaya and Kitaika^2,3, which the National Fruit Collection writes as Orleans Reinette × Glogerovka × Kitaika (Malus prunifolia)¹; Glogerovka was described in 1903 as Pepinka Litovskaya⁶.

It went into state trials in 1939 and was admitted to the state register in 1947 for regions from north-western Russia to eastern Siberia; in western and eastern Siberia it is grown as a low, creeping tree². It has been a parent of other apples: the National Fruit Collection records it as the mother of Krasnyi Shtandart¹, and SNP data show it to be a parent, with Reinette Simirenko, of Junnaja Sonata⁴.

SNP studies point to other parents than the recorded ones. Muranty and colleagues found Pepin Shafranny and Scarlet Pearmain, an English apple introduced about 1800, to be parent and offspring, with 11 Mendelian errors where they accepted up to 600, and took Scarlet Pearmain to be the parent from the dates^4,8. Larsen and colleagues give its two parents as Scarlet Pearmain and Glogerovka⁵. On this evidence Glogerovka is a parent rather than a grandparent, and Scarlet Pearmain stands where the record has Orleans Reinette^2,4,5.

The fruit

The fruit is small to medium, about 85 grams, round- or oval-conical, and smooth or faintly ribbed^2,3; the National Fruit Collection measured it at 56 mm wide and 53 mm high¹. The smooth, greasy skin is greenish to orange-yellow, mostly covered by a diffuse dark red flush with darker stripes, and has many small pale dots^2,3. The cream flesh is firm, juicy and tender, sweet and vinous with a delicate spicy aroma^2,3; VNIISPK gives 11.6 per cent sugars and 0.57 per cent acids³. It is eaten from autumn or early winter and keeps until February², or until February or March, about 223 days, in a fruit store, and it travels well³.

Growing

The tree is small to medium-sized, with a broad, flat-round, weeping crown that needs regular thinning, and it bears mainly on long fruiting twigs and spurs^2,3. It begins to crop in its fifth to seventh year and then crops heavily every year, and it is largely self-fertile³. Its winter hardiness is moderate: trees are damaged in hard winters but recover well^2,3. It flowers late². Without pruning, the fruit grows small and tends to drop³. It is diploid^4,5.

Uses

It is a dessert apple¹ of general use, and VNIISPK rates its processed products highly, jam above all³.

Where the sources disagree

Parents. The recorded pedigree is Orleans Reinette × (Pepinka Litovskaya × Kitaika)^2,3; SNP data give Scarlet Pearmain and Glogerovka^4,5. Orleans Reinette and Scarlet Pearmain have carried much the same name: the National Fruit Collection lists Krasnyi shafran among the other names of the first⁷ and Safran Krasnii among those of the second⁸.
Date. The National Fruit Collection gives 1907¹; the Russian register gives 1907–1915².
Scab. The National Fruit Collection calls it resistant to scab¹; the Russian register rates its resistance as medium², and VNIISPK counts scab among its faults³.
Season. The Russian sources treat it as an apple for autumn and winter that keeps until February or March^2,3; at Brogdale in Kent it is picked in late August¹.

Family tree

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

Pepin Shafranny Russia, 1907
- Parent Scarlet Pearmain United Kingdom, by about 1800
- Parent Glogerovka

Offspring in the atlas

Krasnyi Shtandart × Rubynovoye; Russia, 1915

Where Pepin Shafranny came from.

Sources

Pepin Shafrannyi (accession 1975-006), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Raised in 1907 by I.V. Michurin at Michurinsk, Russia"; a dessert apple; "Resistant to scab"; parentage "Orleans Reinette x Glogerovka X Kitaika/M.prunifolia"; mother of Krasnyi Shtandart; fruit 52.79 mm high and 55.93 mm wide; picking in late August at the collection.
State Register of Breeding Achievements Approved for Use: Pepin Shafrannyi, apple (in Russian), State Commission of the Russian Federation for Testing and Protection of Breeding Achievements (Gossortkomissiya). Supports: "obtained in 1907–1915"; Renet orleanskii (Orleans Reinette) × a hybrid form (Pepinka litovskaya × Kitaika); author Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin; originator the Michurin centre at Michurinsk, Tambov region; autumn or early-winter use, keeping until February; medium winter hardiness; late flowering; good recovery after damage; medium resistance to scab; high, regular yields; a tree below medium to medium size with a broad, flat-round, weeping crown, fruiting on long fruiting twigs and spurs; fruit below medium, 85 g, oblong-ovate or oval-conical, slightly ribbed or smooth; smooth, greasy, orange-yellow skin with a diffuse, striped dark red flush over most of the fruit and small yellowish dots; creamy-yellow, medium-firm, juicy, tender flesh, vinous-sweet with a delicate aroma; state trials from 1939; admitted to the register in 1947 for regions from the North-West to East Siberia; grown in a creeping form in western and eastern Siberia.
Variety database: apple, Pepin Shafranny (in Russian), All-Russian Research Institute of Fruit Crop Breeding (VNIISPK), Orel. Supports: a winter variety bred by I. V. Michurin from Renet orleanskii × (Pepinka litovskaya × Kitaika); a medium-sized tree with a dense crown needing regular thinning, cropping mainly on fruiting twigs and spurs; fruit medium and small, round-conical, greenish-yellow with a diffuse dark red flush, darker stripes and many small white dots; cream, firm, juicy flesh, vinous-sweet with a delicate spicy aroma; 11.6% sugars and 0.57% titratable acids; very transportable; keeping until February–March (223 days) in a fruit store; general purpose, its processed products good, especially jam; first crops in the fifth to seventh year, then heavy annual crops; medium winter hardiness, damage in severe winters with good recovery; scab among its faults; highly self-fertile; small, dropping fruit without pruning.
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: Pepin Shafrannyj diploid (Table S1); Pepin Shafrannyj and Scarlet Pearmain a parent–offspring pair with 11 Mendelian errors against a threshold of 600, Scarlet Pearmain (dated 1800) taken as the parent by date, the literature parents being Orleans Reinette and (Glogerovka × Kitaika) or (Pepinka litovskaya × Kitayka) (Table S5); Pepin Shafrannyj and Reinette Simirenko the parents of Junnaja Sonata (Table S3).
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, supplementary Table S5, 2025. Supports: Pepin Shafrannyj diploid, with SNP-confirmed parents Scarlet Pearmain and Glogerovka.
Glogerovka (accession 1949-170), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "It was described in 1903 as Pepinka Litovskaya"; Pepinka Litovskaya among its other names.
Orleans Reinette (accession 1976-147), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: Krasnyi shafran among the other names of Orleans Reinette.
Scarlet Pearmain (accession 1957-227), National Fruit Collection, Brogdale, Kent (Defra). Supports: "Originated in England. Introduced in about 1800"; Safran Krasnii among its other names.