Timeline of United States discoveries
The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars. The Red Delicious apple was discovered in 1875 by Jesse Hiatt on his farm in Peru, Iowa. Believing that the seedling was nothing more than nuisance. After chopping down the tree three times, Hiatt decided to let the tree grow and eventually, it produced an unknown and new harvest of red apples. Hiatt would eventually sell the rights to this type of apple to the Stark Brothers Nurseries and Orchards who renamed it the Red Delicious.
Spartan (apple)
The 'Spartan' is an apple cultivar developed by Dr. R. C Palmer and introduced in 1936 from the Federal Agriculture Research Station in Summerland, British Columbia, now known as the Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre - Summerland. The 'Spartan' is notable for being the first new breed of apple produced from a formal scientific breeding program. The apple was supposed to be a cross between two North American cultivars, the 'McIntosh' and the 'Newtown Pippin', but recently, genetic analysis showed the 'Newtown Pippin' was not one of the parents and its identity remains a mystery. The 'Spartan' apple is considered a good all-purpose apple.
The apple is of medium size and has a bright-red blush, but can have background patches of greens and yellows.