Golden Delicious

'Golden Delicious'
Hybrid parentage	Chance seedling
Origin	Clay County, West Virginia, United States, 1905

The Golden Delicious is a cultivar of apple with a yellow color, not closely related to the Red Delicious apple. According to the US Apple Association website it is one of the 15 most popular apple cultivars in the United States.

Golden Delicious is a large, yellowish-green skinned cultivar and very sweet to the taste. It is prone to bruising and shriveling, so it needs careful handling and storage. It is a favorite for salads, apple sauce, and apple butter.

This cultivar is a chance seedling possibly a hybrid of Grimes Golden and Golden Reinette. The original tree was found on the Mullins' family farm in Clay County, West Virginia, United States and was locally known as Mullin's Yellow Seedling and Annit apple. Anderson Mullins sold the tree and propagation rights to Stark Brothers Nurseries, which first marketed it as a companion of their Red Delicious in 1914.

In 2010, an Italian-led consortium announced they had decoded the complete genome of the Golden delicious apple. It had the highest number of genes (57,000) of any plant genome studied to date.

The Golden Delicious was designated the official state fruit of West Virginia by a Senate resolution on February 20, 1995. Clay County has hosted an annual Golden Delicious Festival since 1972.

In 2013 the United States Postal Service issued a set of four 33¢ stamps commemorating apples, including the 'Golden Delicious' as well as 'Baldwin', 'Northern Spy', and 'Granny Smith'.

Harvested from autumn through winter.

...
Wikipedia