The extremely rare phenomenon appears to be a result of ice forming around rotting apples in freezing weather.
An apple grower has gone viral with images which show ghostly ice fruits hanging from a tree in freezing cold weather.
Andrew Sietsema, from Sparta, Michigan, said the unusual images were the result of rotting Jonagold apples being covered in ice thanks to the freezing rain.
“I guess it was just cold enough that the ice covering the apple hadn’t melted yet, but it was warm enough that the apple inside turned to complete mush,” Andrew told the Press Association.
With no ice formed around the bottom of the apple, the mushy fruit had somewhere to escape when the tree was disturbed.
“When I pruned a tree it would be shaken in the process, and the mush would slip out of the bottom of the ‘ghost apple’,” Andrew said. “Most apples just fell off, ice and all. But quite a few would leave a cool ‘ghost apple’ behind.”
The Press Association contacted a range of horticulture experts to attempt to verify the images, and while some expressed scepticism, others were convinced of their veracity.
Amy Irish-Brown, tree fruit educator at Michigan State University, said: “I’ve seen pieces of the shell left behind, but never the whole apple shell. What a rare event to capture.”
Peter Jentsch, an expert in pest management around fruit and vegetables from Cornell University, said he had witnessed the phenomenon in orchards in the Hudson Valley in New York.
Andrew’s original images were shared more than 10,000 times on Facebook while the pictures earned 75,000 upvotes on Reddit.
“I’m sure you could find them at any orchard on the Ridge near Sparta, or at least any that still had a few unpicked apples hanging on the trees,” he said.
“Jonagolds are one of my favourite apple varieties, but we’ll call these ‘Jonaghosts’.”
NEW YORK (AP) — A Manhattan federal court will hear arguments Wednesday in a lawsuit challenging the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student that the Trump Administration is trying to deport over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests at the school.
Immigration enforcement agents arrested Khalil, a permanent U.S. resident, in New York on Saturday and he has been moved to an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman has ordered that the 30-year-old not be deported while the court considers the legal challenge brought by his lawyers, who are seeking to have Khalil returned to New York and released under supervision. They argue that he engaged in protected free speech and that the government is illegally retaliating against him over it.
A joint filing by Khalil's lawyers and the government ahead of Wednesday's hearing said the government intends to argue that the Southern District of New York is not the proper venue for the case.
Columbia University became the center of a U.S. pro-Palestinian protest movement that swept across college campuses nationwide last year and led to more than 2,000 arrests.
President Donald Trump heralded Khalil’s arrest as the first “of many to come,” vowing on social media to deport students he described as engaging in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
During a stopover in Ireland while headed from Saudi Arabia to a meeting of the G7 foreign ministers in Canada, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Khalil's case is “not about free speech.”
"This is about people that don’t have a right to be in the United States to begin with. No one has a right to a student visa. No one has a right to a green card," Rubio said.
Khalil, who acted as a spokesperson for Columbia protesters, has not been charged with a crime. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday the administration had moved to deport him under a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state the power to deport a non-citizen on foreign policy grounds.
Civil rights groups and Khalil’s attorneys say the government is unconstitutionally using its immigration control powers to stop him from speaking out.
Khalil's detention has sparked protests in New York City and other cities. On Tuesday, a man was arrested and 11 other people were given summonses for alleged disorderly conduct during a demonstration near Washington Square Park in lower Manhattan, police said.
Khalil finished his requirements for a Columbia master’s degree in December. Born in Syria, he is a grandson of Palestinians who were forced to leave their homeland, his lawyers said in a legal filing.
He is married to a U.S. citizen, who is expecting their first child.
Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee in Shannon, Ireland, contributed.
Protesters march on campus against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Protesters march on campus against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Protesters march on campus against the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in Berkeley, Calif. (Santiago Mejia/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Protesters hold Palestinian flag during a demonstration outside Manhattan Federal Court in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, Monday, March 10, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Protesters demonstrate in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil at Washington Square Park, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
FILE - Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is on the Columbia University campus in New York at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, file)
