From the Living Museum
Lubsk Queen
- Origin
- Russia; imported to the United States by the USDA in 1870 (No. 444)
- Era
- Imported 1870
- Type / use
- Dessert (uncertain)
History & Stories
Attractive fruit with reported good flavor and cold hardiness. Interesting as a less-common Russian introduction.
Folklore & Name
Russian or Eastern European introduction to North America. Name of place or personal origin. Cold-hardy variety with limited English documentation.
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
Lubsk Queen is one of the Russian apples brought to North America in the 1870s. S.A. Beach's The Apples of New York (1905) says it was "imported from Russia by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1870 under No. 444." It was added to the American Pomological Society's list in 1889 and dropped two years later 1. Beach thought it caught growers' eyes for its beautiful fruit and for a hardy, productive tree, but added that "in other respects it does not rank high" 1. Its synonyms include Lubsk Reinette 1.
What we think: stories & traditions
A number, then a name. For years this apple was known by its import number, No. 444, alongside the name Lubsk Reinette 1. Its main selling points, according to Beach, were the beauty of the fruit and the hardiness of the tree 1.
Beach's frank verdict, beautiful but not much more, is a nice reminder that the old pomologists judged apples with a hard commercial eye 1.
Sources
- S.A. Beach, The Apples of New York, Vol. 2 (Albany: J.B. Lyon, 1905), "Lubsk Queen," pp. 129–130. archive.org/details/applesofnewyork02beacrich/page/129
Curious about Lubsk Queen?
Email us at drgoss@honeytreeorchard.com.