The ‘Spartan’ is an apple cultivar developed by 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 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.
Good all purpose apple and used like a McIntosh in many parts of the country.