Flesh is pale greenish-yellow, firm, fine-grained. Somewhat tart..

USDA Zones: 6–9 Not Self-fertile Bloom Time-Mid-Late-Season

Synonyms: Faust's Rome Beauty, Foust's Rome Beauty, Gillett's Seedling, Roman, Red Roman, Roman Beauty, Rome, Phoenix, Royal Red, Starbuck, Imperator, Ohio Red Rome

Fruit is medium to large size, round and slightly ribbed near the eye. The skin is glossy with a yellow-green base color washed with bright red flushes and stripes. Color on the sun exposed side is dark red. Scattered light-colored lenticels. The stem is long and thick, set in a deep, wide and

russet-lined cavity. Thick skin.

Origins: Originally known as Gillet’s Seedling, the chance seedling was found in 1816 by Joel Gillett, a carpenter and shoemaker by trade, among some 100 young apple trees he had brought with him by flatboat from Putnam Nursery in Marietta, Ohio, to start an orchard at Quaker’s Flat, a few miles from Huntington Beach. Since it did not match the rest of the shipment, he gave the young tree to his son, Alanson Gillett, who planted it along the bank of the river. Years later it was found to produce a unique fruit, his cousin, took cuttings from the tree and began to propagate them. First described in print in the January, 1846 issue of the "Western Farmer and Gardener" with the comments that "the Rome Beauty or Gillet, is a seedling taken from the nursery of Israel Putnam, in Union township, Washington county. Thick skin.

Ripens August to September.