Gala is an apple cultivar with a sweet, mild flavor, a crisp but not hard texture, and a striped or mottled orange or reddish appearance.

[3] The first Gala apple tree was one of many seedlings resulting from a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Kidd's Orange Red planted in Greytown, Wairarapa, New Zealand in the 1930s by orchardist J.H.

[5] Donald W. McKenzie, an employee of Stark Bros Nursery, obtained a US plant patent for the cultivar on October 15, 1974.

The variety now represents about 20% of the total volume of the commercial production of eating apples grown in the UK, often replacing Cox's Orange Pippin.

Additionally, more than twenty sports have received US plant patents: Gala apples are grown from May through September in the northern hemisphere, but, like most apples, are available almost all year through the use of cold storage and controlled atmosphere storage.