Heirloom Fruit Watercolors

Apples · USDA pomological watercolour

Pilot Apple

Historical USDA watercolour of the Pilot Apple apple, painted 1840–1882

Pilot is an old winter apple associated with Virginia and the southern Appalachians, grown by the mid-nineteenth century. A dark-red, firm, sub-acid apple that keeps through the winter, it was a regional market and storage variety of its day. It survives in the USDA watercolours among the heirloom apples of the upland South.

CultivarPilot
SpeciesMalus domestica
Common fruitApple
Painted1840–1882
Artist(s)Newton, Amanda Almira, Passmore, Deborah Griscom, Lower, Elsie E. b., Steadman, Royal Charles b.
Specimen originNorth Carolina, Wake, Raleigh; Virginia, Nelson, Massies Mill; Virginia, Richmond; Virginia, Arlington
CollectionUSDA Pomological Watercolor Collection
Plates9

All 9 plates

Public domain via the U.S. National Agricultural Library. Plate ids: POM00000629, POM00000630, POM00000631, POM00000687, POM00000688, POM00000689, POM00000690, POM00000691, POM00002360.

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