Walk into the produce section of your average supermarket and you're going to see a lot

of different varieties of apples.

Honey crisp, macintosh, golden delicious, red delicious, Fuji, granny smiths, reds, green

yellows.

Believe it or not, all of these apples can actually trace their roots back to a common

wild ancestor and to the wild apple forests where it grows.

I'm Amanda McGowan and this is Atlas of Skiura, a celebration of the world's strange incredible

and wondrous places.

Today, we're heading to the TN Shen Mountains between Kazakhstan and China in search of wild

apples.

That's up to this.

It was May and we were up in the mountains and the national parks.

It was a rugged drive to get to these locations on bumpy roads.

This is Gail Volk.

She's a scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture or USDA.

In 2018, Gail traveled to the TN Shen Mountain Range in Kazakhstan along the border with China.

This is an area known for its wild apples.

In fact, the nearest city in Kazakhstan is actually called Almaty, a name which comes from

the word apple.

And that is exactly what Gail was looking for, wild apple trees.

And the trees were beautiful.

You saw bright pink and white blossoms.

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