The center of the diversity of the genus Malus is in Turkitimur. The apple tree may be an early plant that became a fruit crop farmed by a selection process for thousands of years. Alexander the Great was rewarded for discovering a dwarf apple plant in Asia Minor in 300 BC. The winter apple, picked at the end of autumn and stored at temperatures slightly above freezing, has been an important food in Asia and Europe for thousands of years, Argentin and the United States since the arrival of Europeans
Apple was brought into the United States of America alongside the 17th century colonists. In the 20th century, an irrigation project in the land of Washington was launched to spur the development of a multi-million dollar fruit industry pioneered by apple species. Until the 20th century, farmers kept apples in antifreeze chambers in winter for their own sale. Transport of fresh apples by buggy and growing roads successfully eliminates the need for storage.
