West Country cider makers work with academics to unearth new 'climate change resistant' apples
Sandford Orchards in Devon is involved with the research
The future of West Country cider apples is being looked at, to see which will fair best with climate change.
A University of Bristol study has found more than a few dozen new varieties across orchards, in places like Devon, which will help inform the future make-up of sites.
Research associate Amanda Burridge says there's roughly three-and-a-half thousand types they know of, but a few dozen they didn't, adding: "If you have children, they will never be clones of you - and apple trees are exactly the same.
"We can't have a golden delicious and grow the seed and expect to have an identical golden delicious - you will get something different every time."
She reflected: "We've done all of this with climate change in mind.
"Some of these were established orchards that have since had a road put through them and they are not managed orchards anymore - so some of these are climate survivors as they haven't been in managed orchards being looked after."
Barny Butterfield, chair of the South West Cider Makers' Association and incoming national chair, said: "What was amazing was amazing to discover that we were merrily picking and using hundreds of tonnes of fruit that no one knows what they are.
"They are in no national collection and they are in no database - these are apples that have been handed down family to family, farm to farm, cidermaker to cidermaker for centuries."
He added: "We need more funding, we need funders to work with the likes of Bristol University or any that are serious about food security.
"One of things that we know about the climate crisis is that we don't know - and then we have to ask ourselves the question of what plants are better at surviving?"