From the Living Museum
Black Limbertwig
- Origin
- Southern Appalachians; first documented in middle Tennessee (1886); DNA matches Winesap
- Era
- Southern Appalachian landrace / Limbertwig complex
- Type / use
- Dessert · Dual-purpose · Cider
Portrait to be revealed
History & Stories
A member of the Limbertwig family, a large group of Southern apples named for their drooping branches; the collector Henry Morton gathered some forty strains of it 1. Black Limbertwig itself turns out to be genetically identical to Winesap and is probably a sport of it 2. Medium, often elongated or irregular fruit with russet or rough skin, firm spicy-aromatic flesh, and excellent storage. Unique as a tough, disease-resistant, regionally adapted Southern heirloom complex rather than a single named variety — a living piece of Appalachian agricultural history.
Folklore & Name
Part of the Southern Limbertwig family, which has many local strains 1; Black Limbertwig itself matches Winesap by DNA 2. Name refers to the characteristic limber, drooping twigs. Tough, spicy, excellent-keeping Southern heirloom complex — living agricultural history of the mountains.
Digging into the History
Below my own notes, here is what the old fruit books and today’s collections record about this apple, kept apart from the stories people tell.
What we know
Black Limbertwig belongs to the Limbertwig family of Southern Appalachian apples, named for their slender, drooping branches. Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste entry traces its documented spread to Tennessee: in 1886 the nurseryman J. D. Killian of Tarlton, Tennessee, whose "Old Reliable Nursery" opened in 1868, offered scion wood to orchards in his region. A McMinnville writer that year called it "a large, smooth apple, very dark red in color, firm meat and finely flavored" 1. By 1891 it was being recommended in tidewater Virginia, and in 1914 the Georgia Horticultural Society recommended it 1,2. The Ark of Taste entry says the 1914 Georgia notice "has mistakenly prompted numbers of historical apple lovers to regard it as having a Georgia nativity." Its home ground was the part of Tennessee between Nashville and Chattanooga 1.
The competing accounts
- Slow Food Ark of Taste 1: first documented in middle Tennessee, offered as scion wood by nurseryman J. D. Killian of Tarlton in 1886; it says a 1914 Georgia recommendation led some people to think, wrongly, that it came from Georgia.
- Horne Creek Farm, NC Historic Sites 2: DNA shows it to be genetically identical to Winesap, so it is probably a sport (a mutated branch) of Winesap rather than a seedling.
Most likely (our judgment, not a certainty): a Winesap sport that became a local favourite in middle Tennessee by the 1880s. The DNA finding is the strongest evidence we have about what it is; the Tennessee records tell us where it spread, not where the sport first appeared.
What we think: stories & traditions
A Winesap in disguise? North Carolina's Horne Creek Farm heritage orchard notes that Black Limbertwig is "genetically identical to Winesap but is probably a sport or mutation of it" 2. If so, it would be a bud mutation that changed the tree's habit and fruit, not a separate seedling. That's a surprising twist for an apple with such a strong regional identity.
The man who saved the Limbertwigs. Slow Food credits Henry Morton with collecting some forty Limbertwig strains in the late 1970s and 1980s, before the old trees died. In a 1984 Knoxville newspaper interview he said, "Black Limbertwig. That's the best Limbertwig growing" 1.
Sources
- Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, Ark of Taste, "Black Limbertwig Apple." www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/black-limbertwig-apple/
- NC Historic Sites, Horne Creek Farm Southern Heritage Apple Orchard, "Apple Index: Black Limbertwig to Bushy Top." historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/horne-creek-farm/southern-heritage-apple-orchard/learn-more/apple-variety-information/apple-index-black-limbertwig-bushy-top
Curious about Black Limbertwig?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.