The ASHS Outstanding Fruit Cultivar Award: A 25-year Retrospective

The Outstanding Fruit Cultivar Award is a medal presented annually by the Fruit Breeding Working Group of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) for noteworthy new fruits released over the previous 35 years. Since 1987, 38 cultivars have been recognized with medals presented at the Annual Conference of the Society. The awards celebrate the progress achieved by fruit breeders and their contributions to the world’s fruit industry. The world’s fruit industry is based on distinct clones that have uniquely desirable horticultural characteristics. The genetic improvement of fruits known as fruit breeding in its broadest sense has an ancient tradition that dates back to the domestication process of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, 8,000 to 10,000 years ago. Genetic improvement was achieved by selection, first from natural seedling populations and then from seedlings that occurred naturally in growers’ fields with desirable genotypes fixed by vegetative propagation. In the middle of the 19th century, the English horticulturist Thomas Andrew Knight (1759–1838) initiated the science of fruit breeding by a combination of deliberate hybridization followed by selection and testing. Conventional fruit breeding is based on continuous selection of superior phenotypes from genetically variable populations using cycles of hybridization and selection and including special techniques such as mutation induction, interspecific hybridization, and backcross breeding. Recently, biotechnological techniques have been used including in vitro propagation, embryo rescue, protoplast fusion, marker-assisted selection, and transgenesis. The creation of new distinct cultivars as a result of the breeder’s art has had an enormous influence on pomology and horticulture. Trait improvements have been associated with characters that are beneficial to consumers such as the improvement of edible quality and appearance and to growers, packers, and processors such as resistance to diseases and pests, increased yield, and postharvest quality. The Award and Medallion In 1976, Dr. Jules Janick, Dr. James Moore, and chapter authors assigned their royalties from Advances in Fruit Breeding (Janick and Moore, 1974) to the ASHS with the stipulation that the funds be used to promote fruit breeding. In 1983, the royalties for the companion volume Methods in Fruit Breeding (Moore and Janick, 1983) were added to the fund. In 1986, the ASHS Awards Committee approved an ‘‘Outstanding Fruit Cultivar Award,’’ to be administered by the Fruit Breeding Working Group with expenses paid by the royalties’ fund. The first award was made in 1987. The Outstanding Cultivar Award was intended to honor the fruit cultivar. For the nomination process, the nominator submits information about the cultivar including: 1) brief history and development; 2) significance and impact of the cultivar; 3) names of individual associated with the cultivar; and 4) supporting letters. The award selection committee is composed of the officers of the ASHS Fruit Breeding Working Group and is coordinated by the past chair. The window to receive the award is 35 years from release. In some years, more than one award has been issued. The Outstanding Cultivar Award medallion is based on a 1510 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer of Adam and Eve (Fig. 1A) that was modified to adorn the cover of Advances in Fruit Breeding (Fig. 1B). The companion Dürer woodcut was used for the cover of the Methods in Fruit Breeding (Fig. 1C; Janick and Moore, 1974; Moore and Janick, 1983). The medallion was designed by Janick and arrangements for its casting were made by Dr. Wayne Sherman. The obverse side of the medallion contains the image of Adam and Eve holding an apple with the words FOR GENETIC IMPROVEMENT in raised letters on the edge (Fig. 1D). The reverse side of the medallion contains the biblical phrase from Isaiah: ‘‘The Fruit of the Land Shall be the Pride and Glory. Is. 4:2 RSV’’ in the upper portion and the phrase ‘‘ASHS FRUIT BREEDING’’ on the lower edge. Space was left to engrave the name of the cultivar and the names of people associated with its breeding or release. Recipients and Impact The list of cultivar recipients and breeders associated with the cultivar’s development from 1987 to 2012 is shown in Table 1 and the cultivars are depicted in Figure 2. A more detailed description of each awarded cultivar is listed below. We have made every effort to present a complete list of cultivar recipients for this 25th anniversary, and honor those who had a major role in developing these cultivars. However, some records of the Fruit Breeding Working Group have been lost over the years, and the authors deeply regret any omissions from this publication. If you are aware of an error or omission, we would greatly appreciate your information.