Flower of Kent

Not to be confused with Beauty of Kent (apple).

The Flower of Kent is a green cultivar of cooking apple. It is pear-shaped, mealy, and sub-acid, and of generally poor quality by today's standards. As its name suggests, this cultivar likely originated from Kent, England.^[1]

This apple tree at the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge is a descendant of a tree which grew in Isaac Newton's garden at Woolsthorpe Manor. Erroneously photographed with an apple of the "Red Delicious" variety.

Though now largely gone from commercial cultivation, a handful of Flower of Kent trees remain. Most, if not all, are said to descend from trees at Newton's Woolsthorpe Manor, and nearly all that exist descend from a single tree in East Malling, Kent. One such tree is located in the President's Garden at MIT, although it is known to have produced only one apple.^[2] Currently, this cultivar remains available at Antique Apple Orchard Inc. in Sweet Home, Oregon.^[3]

According to the story, this is the apple Isaac Newton saw falling to ground from its tree, inspiring his laws of universal gravitation.

The National Fruit Collection at Brogdale^[4] contains an example, listed as "Isaac Newton's Tree" (1948-729).