Apache Blackberry

Apache was released in 1999 by the University of Arkansas fruit breeding program, one of the largest blackberry-breeding programs in the world, part of a series of thornless erect varieties the program has released named after Native American tribes. It originated from a hand-pollinated cross of Arkansas Selection 1007 and Navaho, made in 1988 at the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station's Fruit Substation in Clarksville, Arkansas — its thornlessness trait was inherited from further back in that same breeding line, originally derived from the British cultivar Merton Thornless. Apache has the largest fruit and highest yield among the Arkansas program's thornless blackberries released up to that point, ripening about five days after Navaho with a late harvest window, firm berries with excellent post-harvest shelf life, and good resistance to rosette disease and orange rust, though it can be prone to sunburn and white drupelet issues in some conditions.