Apple season means a nutritional bonanza for all manner of species
OCTOBER MARKS THE OFFICIAL START OF the British apple season, and since the 1990s, 21st October has been celebrated as Apple Day, with events held around the UK.
Windfall apples left to rot on the ground do not go to waste, however, because the fruit nourish an entire ecosystem, the sweet, fermenting juices attracting a host of scrumpers, from the last of the year’s wasps to butterflies, earwigs, thrushes, badgers, foxes and small mammals.
Apple trees themselves are great for birds and insects, particularly as they become gnarly with age. Nuthatches and treecreepers will feed on insects hiding under the bark and woodpeckers will often make their nest in old rotten holes.
Europe’s native apple is the crabapple, with its smaller, tarter fruit. Domestic apple trees, found in orchards and gardens, originate in Kazakhstan. Yet they have been cultivated so long, there are at least 2,000 apple varieties in England alone.