UK: New app promotes local fruit varieties

Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, this tool is part of an ongoing effort by PTES to conserve and restore traditional orchards across the United Kingdom in recognition of their habitat value to local wildlife.

 

There are around 5,000 fruit varieties grown in the UK, many of which are specific to the geographical area from which they come.

 

FruitFinder is the first online database which lists every known UK grown variety of orchard fruit, from apples and pears to medlars and mulberries, providing a way for gardeners, cider-makers or orchard owners to find nurseries that sell them or a source of grafting material of rare heritage varieties.

 

Increasing awareness of and access to these rare and heritage varieties will help prevent them being lost over time, says PTES.

 

Over the last 10 years, PTES’ orchards team, with the help of more than 700 volunteers and nearly 1500 orchard owners, has identified more than 35,000 individual orchards in England and more than 7,000 in Wales.

 

Alarmingly, this work revealed that 90 per cent of traditional orchards have been lost since the 1950s.

 

Furthermore, 45 per cent of the remaining orchards surveyed in England and 35 per cent of orchards in Wales were found to be in a declining condition as a habitat.

 

By far the most common reason for this is lack of replacement tree replanting, meaning these remaining old orchards will quickly disappear unless action is taken.