This tree is vigorous, precocious, and productive, and it has an upright-spreading habit. It will need thinning to maintain annual bearing. Its most interesting feature from a horticultural perspective is the low chill requirement of 400 hours. This means that White Winter Pearmain can be successfully cultivated in warm-winter climates such as southern California.

The apple varies in size, from smallish to large, and its shape is somewhat irregular, usually conic. The smooth waxen skin is a translucent yellow, almost ghostly, with a small crown of russet around the stem. The creamy flesh is firm and finely textured with an aromatic flavor that is honeyed and tropical. An early North Carolina nurseryman said that White Winter Pearmain was regarded by leading pomologists in his state as "the highest flavored apple in cultivation." The fruit will store well for up to four months.

The origins of this variety are quite obscure. In the mid 1800s, a collection of scion wood was transported to Indiana by saddlebag. Two of these sticks had lost their labels (the nursery nightmare!), and both eventually produced apples that the grower, a Mr. Todd, named Red Pearmain and White Pearmain. The "Red Pearmain" was later identified as Esopus Spitzenburg, but the White Pearmain has never been identified. By the late 1800s it had become a favorite apple in the southern and midwestern states.

Even the name of this apple is a bit mysterious. The title "pearmain" has, like "pippin" been applied to many varieties over time, and nobody today knows exactly what the word originally meant. A very likely etymology, however, is that it derives from Old French parmaindre "to endure" with reference to an apple's storage potential.