Tasty bit of history

AS you bite into a crisp, juicy apple, you may think you know where it comes from – a local grower, perhaps, or some far-off foreign orchard.

But that fruit owes its existence to a mountainous region of Kazakhstan and traders using the Silk Road between 4000 and 10,000 years ago.

Using DNA analysis, scientists have pinpointed where the first wild edible apples grew – an area west of Tian Shan mountains on the Kazakh-Chinese border.

Traders travelling the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean would munch on the fruit, scientific name Malus sieversii.

Pips they discarded at the wayside sprouted into new trees. As apples spread, hybridisation continued and, with human help, resulted in the 7500 varieties of Malus domestica now cultivated across the globe.