Paragon

identification: Medium to large size, round, sometimes slightly conic. The base colour is green but almost completely washed deep, dark red and marked with rays of russet extending from the stem cavity. A few darker stripes can occasionally be distinguished. The calyx is small and partly open, set in a medium deep and medium wide basin. The stem is short and slender, set in a deep and narrow, russetted cavity.

characteristics: The flesh is yellowish and somewhat fine-grained. Crisp and moderately juicy. Citrus flavours.

origins: A chance seedling or possibly a whole-tree mutation of Winesap found growing during the 1860s in Major Rankin Toole's apple orchard located 10 kilometres west of Fayetteville in Lincoln County of southcentral Tennessee (U.S.A.). The orchard had been planted with Winesap and Limbertwig apple seedlings obtained from Lincoln County nurseryman John Thorpe in the mid-1800s and it was not until the trees fruited that the one tree produced larger, more deeply coloured fruit than any other in the orchard. It was initially referred to as the "big" Black Twig to differentiate it from the "little" Black Twigs which made up the rest of the orchard -- Black Twig being a common synonym for Winesap and Limbertwig apples in the region. Though descriptive, that name and its semblance to the Mammoth Blacktwig which originated in northwestern Arkansas caused considerable confusion and, in 1885, Dr. W.L. Moores of Cyrustown in Lincoln County, Tennessee, proposed the name "Paragon" be adopted to both apples. It was later assigned to the "big" Blacktwig that originated in Tennessee.

notes: Very similar in many respects to the Mammoth Black Twig which originated in Arkansas (U.S.A.) some years later. Both are believed to be chance seedlings of Winesap.