Granny Smith

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Malus 'Granny Smith'
Image:Granny smith apple.jpg

Hybrid parentage
Thought to be Malus domestica × M. sylvestris

Cultivar
Granny Smith
Origin
Marie Ana (Sherwood) Smith Australia, 1865

Granny Smith is an apple cultivar originating in Australia from 1868 from a chance seedling propagated by Marie Ana (Granny) Smith. It is thought to be a seed from Malus sylvestris, the European Wild Apple, with the domestic apple M. domestica as the pollenizer; if this origin is correct, it is a hybrid.

It was widely propagated in New Zealand, from which it was introduced to England in about 1935 and the United States in 1972 by Grady Auvil.

Granny Smith apples are a light speckled green in color, though some may have a pink blush. They are crisp, juicy, tart apples that are excellent for cooking, or eating out of hand. They also are favored for salads because the slices do not brown as quickly as other varieties.

This cultivar needs fewer winter chill hours and a longer growing season to mature the fruit, so it is favored for the milder areas of the apple growing regions.

A Granny Smith Festival is held each year at Eastwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, where the variety was first grown.

Granny Smith apples tend to have a harder texture than other green apples, posing problems for denture wearers.

A Granny Smith is the apple used on labels for Apple Records.

Granny Smith apples are also bitten into and chewed by voice actors to remove clicks from their speech.^{[citation needed]}