AgricultureID

Cultivar · Apple cultivar

Braeburn

Braeburn is a firm, crisp, sweet-tart bicolour dessert apple that arose as a chance seedling in New Zealand around 1952. It was one of the first modern commercial successes among richly flavoured, well-storing bicolour apples.

Dated referenceLast reviewed: 2026-07-12Updated: 2026-07-12
Illustrative diagram · AgricultureID (original)

Record

Cultivar / variety
Variety of
Apple
Botanical taxon
Malus domestica
Type
Cultivar (clonal)
Breeding method
Chance seedling
Origin
Near Motueka, Tasman/Nelson region, New Zealand
Registry status
Historical
Registries
Adaptation
A late-season cultivar generally requiring a long growing season; in warm climates it can be prone to heat- and storage-related fruit disorders.
Intended use
Fresh eating (dessert), Culinary / cooking

Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.

Braeburn is a dessert apple discovered as a chance seedling in New Zealand around 1952 and first grown commercially from the Braeburn Orchard near Motueka, from which it takes its name. Its parentage is not documented with certainty; it is often described as a possible seedling of Lady Hamilton, with Granny Smith sometimes suggested as a parent.

The cultivar is known for a firm, dense texture and a well-balanced sweet-tart, aromatic flavour, together with good storage life. It helped establish international demand for richly flavoured bicolour apples and is grown across temperate apple regions. As a clonal cultivar it is propagated by grafting.

Origin and history

Braeburn was found as a chance seedling in the Nelson/Tasman region of New Zealand around 1952 and propagated from the Braeburn Orchard near Motueka. Its exact parentage is uncertain, which is common for chance seedlings; Lady Hamilton and Granny Smith are among the cultivars suggested in its ancestry, but this is not firmly established.

Braeburn became a commercially important cultivar internationally and contributed to the pedigrees of later apples — for example Jazz (a Braeburn × Gala cross). Its balance of flavour and storage helped broaden the market for bicolour dessert apples beyond the older sweet types.

Fruit and eating quality

  • Skin red-striped and flushed over a green to orange ground (bicolour)
  • Flesh firm, dense, and crisp
  • Flavour well-balanced sweet-tart with a distinct aroma
  • Stores well; holds its shape reasonably in cooking

Cultivation notes

Braeburn is a late-season cultivar that generally needs a long growing season to mature fully. In some warm conditions it can be affected by heat- and storage-related fruit disorders, so colour, flavour balance, and post-harvest behaviour vary with climate, rootstock, and handling.

Official variety registration

Entries recorded for this denomination in official variety registers. Registration is a legal fact about marketing or ownership, separate from where the variety is grown or whether seed is available.

Current entries (6)
RegisterStatusSpecies as publishedRegister reference
AustriaNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/AT/MALUS_DOM/B92
CroatiaNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/HR/MALUS_DOM/HR/7/10
CzechiaNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/CZ/MALUS_DOM/2017110116914
GermanyNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/DE/MALUS_DOM/APF_6024
ItalyNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/IT/MALUS_DOM/IT01323
NetherlandsNational list entry — fruit speciesPermission to marketRegisteredMalus domestica (Suckow) Borkh.NLI/FRU/NL/MALUS_DOM/APP265

Entries that are no longer current

Each register decides separately, so these are grouped by instrument and jurisdiction and never combined into one timeline.

HungaryNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Expireddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Expired” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SlovakiaNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

History records what an official source published at a point in time. Where the source states the date a change took effect, that date is shown; where it does not, only the date AgricultureID observed the change is shown, and it is labelled as such.

Each history is specific to one jurisdiction and one legal instrument. A right that expired in one country says nothing about a listing in another, and they are never combined.

A variety registration permits marketing; a plant variety protection right is ownership. They are granted by different bodies under different law and are never added together.

Entries are matched to this cultivar by identical denomination and by matching botanical species. Registers do not publish a global variety identifier, so a same-name entry in the same species could in principle be a distinct variety.

Registration is jurisdiction-specific, is granted under a particular legal instrument, and changes. A variety absent from a register may still be grown; confirm the current position with the responsible authority before acting on it. How registration is recorded.

Relationships

Evidence-backed connections in the knowledge graph.

Adapted to climate

Adapted to soil

Scope & limitations

Geographic scope: Global overview of a widely grown cultivar. Ripening, flavour balance, and storage behaviour depend on region, rootstock, and season.

  • The parentage and precise origin of the original chance seedling are uncertain.
  • As a late-maturing cultivar, fruit quality and post-harvest behaviour vary considerably with climate and harvest timing.
  • Susceptibility to heat- and storage-related disorders is region-, rootstock-, and season-dependent and is not quantified here.

Sources

This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.

  1. [1]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)

    USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Cultivar/germplasm record and placement within Malus domestica

    Type:
    Official registry
    Jurisdiction:
    United States / Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  2. [2]GBIF — Global Biodiversity Information Facility (opens in a new tab)

    Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

    High

    Cited for: Taxonomy of the parent species Malus domestica

    Type:
    Reference database
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  3. [3]NCBI Taxonomy (opens in a new tab)

    U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)

    High

    Cited for: Scientific name and classification of Malus domestica

    Type:
    Reference database
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12

Related topics

Crops