more strange sussex fruit for ID, please

[Herman Hellebore]

found these growing in the garden of step-son's newly rented house s'afternoon - on a small'ish tree trained up the wall. bearing plenty of fruit, each one being very hard (nothing like a ripe apple), and all being randomly shaped, almost to the point of being disfigured.

the browning is only because it was cut in half an hour or so before the picture - initially very light green and bright white in the centre; note all the very small pips or seeds, and the all-over white spots on the close up pic - very odd !

oh - beer bottle top for scale, obviously....





as ever, very grateful for any assistance - i'm pretty sure that this one is not a bullace

[Herman Hellebore]

bah - just been pointed out that it's actually from just over the border in kent - no wonder i've no idea what it is - foreign stuff !

[Dorts]

It's the fruit of Flowering Quince - Chaenomeles var. (not the true Quince, that has pear-shaped fruit.)
Dorts.

[Herman Hellebore]

nice one Dorts, thank you !

have to say, i kept coming back to quince when i was digging around for an answer, but then discounted it on the basis of being so hard and quite obviously un-ripe at this time of year - do they have to get a bit of frost on 'em and be bletted before they're any good for anything - i see they're supposed to make a decent marmalade ?

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Herman Hellebore

nice one Dorts, thank you !
have to say, i kept coming back to quince when i was digging around for an answer, but then discounted it on the basis of being so hard and quite obviously un-ripe at this time of year - do they have to get a bit of frost on 'em and be bletted before they're any good for anything - i see they're supposed to make a decent marmalade ?

They will imrove after a frost and can be used to make a 'jam/marmalade', but cannot be compared with the true Quince, Cydonia oblonga, of which there are several varieties, the perfume of the ripe yellow fruit is unbelievable.

The Flowering Quince is usually grown just for the flowers.
Prune hard any time now for a good show in the spring.
Dorts.