Ribston Pippin is a triploid cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

 of apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

.

Synonyms

Essex Pippin, Beautiful Pippin, Formosa, Glory of York, Ribstone, Rockhill's Russet and Travers.

Origin

This apple was grown in 1708 from one of three apple pips (seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s) sent from Normandy

Normandy

Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...

 to Sir Henry Goodricke of Ribston Hall

Ribston Hall

Ribston Hall is a privately owned 17th century country mansion situated on the banks of the River Nidd, at Great Ribston, near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. It is a Grade II* listed building....

 at Knaresborough

Knaresborough

Knaresborough is an old and historic market town, spa town and civil parish in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, located on the River Nidd, four miles east of the centre of Harrogate.-History:...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, and the original trunk did not die until 1835. It then sent up a new shoot and, on the same root, lived until 1928.

Ribston is one of the possible parents of the Cox's Orange Pippin

Cox's Orange Pippin

Cox's Orange Pippin is an apple cultivar first grown in 1825, at Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, England, by the retired brewer and horticulturist Richard Cox. Though the origin of the cultivar is unknown, the Ribston Pippin seems a likely candidate. The variety was introduced for sale by the 1850s...

.

Description

The apple skin is a yellow, flushed orange, and streaked red with russet at the base and apex.

The yellow flesh is firm, fine-grained, and sweet with a pear

Pear

The pear is any of several tree species of genus Pyrus and also the name of the pomaceous fruit of these trees. Several species of pear are valued by humans for their edible fruit, but the fruit of other species is small, hard, and astringent....

 taste.

Irregularly shaped and sometimes lopsided, the apple is usually round to conical in shape and flattened at the base with distinct ribbing. Weather conditions during ripening cause a marbling or water coring of the flesh, and in very hot weather, the fruit will ripen prematurely.

Culture

A vigorous tree with upright growth, its medium-sized ovate to oval shaped leaves are a deep green color and distinctly folded with sharp, regular and shallow serrations. The surface of the leaf is smooth and dull with a heavy pubescence.

It is very slow to begin bearing, and the proper pollinators will increase the fruitfulness. Lord Lambourne has been recommended for a pollinator, as well as Adam's Pearmain, James Grieve

James Grieve apple

James Grieve is an old variety of apple. It gets its name from its breeder, James Grieve, who raised the apple from pollination of a Pott's Seedling or a Cox's Orange Pippin apple in Edinburgh, Scotland some time before 1893....

 and Egremont Russet

Egremont Russet

The Egremont Russet is a cultivar of dessert apple, of the russet type. It has a rich, nutty flavour and crisp, firm and fairly juicy flesh.It was first recorded in 1872, and is believed to have been raised by the Earl of Egremont at Petworth in Sussex, UK....

.

Ribston Pippin has one of the highest vitamin C

Vitamin C

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...

 contents; 30mg/100g.

In literature

The apple appears in a verse by Hilaire Belloc

Hilaire Belloc

Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...

 called The False Heart:

Also in Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

's The Return of the Native. Second book chapter two.
'Now a few russets, Tamsin. He used to like those as well as ribstones.'

And in one Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...

 story (Not sure exactly which--possibly The Six Napoleons) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle an incidental character is described as a "Ribston Pippin of a man".