Bramley Apple
Malus domestica
A very large cooking apple, flattened and broader than it is tall, with irregular ribbing around the eye and grass-green skin that dulls to yellowish green with a brownish-red flush. The flesh is white, coarse and sharply acid, collapsing to a pale purée on cooking rather than holding its shape. Almost every tree in Britain descends from a single seedling raised in Nottinghamshire in the early 1800s.
Not a wild tree. Planted in orchards, gardens and allotments throughout Britain and Ireland, and often persisting on abandoned orchard sites and field corners long after the holding has gone. Self-sown apples on hedge banks and waste ground grow from discarded cores and will not come true to this cultivar.
Skin and flesh are safe raw, though the acidity is high enough that most people find the fruit unpleasant without sugar. Pips contain amygdalin and are better spat out than chewed in quantity. Orchard and garden trees may have been sprayed, and fruit on private land needs the owner's permission.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Fruit size and shape
Unusually large, often 8–10 cm across, and distinctly flattened so that it sits wider than it is tall, with uneven ribbing around the eye. Smaller, rounder, evenly shaped fruit points to a dessert cultivar rather than this one.
Skin
Grass-green ripening to a duller yellowish green, usually with a broad brownish-red flush and fine russet streaking on the side that caught the sun. Late-picked fruit often feels slightly greasy.
Flesh and flavour
White, coarse-grained and bracingly acid — a raw bite is sour rather than sweet, with no honeyed aftertaste. Cooked, it breaks down completely to a purée, which is the practical test that separates it from dessert apples that stay in pieces.
Tree habit
Vigorous and wide-spreading, with heavy branches that droop as the crop fills; an old tree occupies far more ground than a dessert apple on comparable rootstock. It is triploid, so it only crops well with other apples flowering nearby.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:34:18.481Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit