Malus

Life-forms

Classification System: APG IV

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Cladus: Rosids
Cladus: Eurosids I
Ordoo: Rosales

Familia: Rosaceae
Subfamilia: Amygdaloideae
Tribus: Maleae
Subtribus: Malinae
Genus: Malus
Sectiones: M. sect. Chloromeles – M. sect. Docyniopsis – M. sect. Eriolobus – M. sect. Gymnomeles – M. sect. Malus – M. sect. Sorbomalus – M. sect. Yunnanenses

Intersectional nothospecies: M. × adstringens – M. × asiatica – M. × atrosanguinea – M. × dawsoniana – M. × platycarpa – M. × purpurea – M. × riversicarnea – M. × robusta – M. × scheideckeri – M. × soulardii – M. × sublobata
Name

Malus Mill. (1754)

Type species: M. sylvestris Mill.

Synonyms

Heterotypic
Chloromeles (Decne.) Decne., Fl. Serres 23: 156. 1881.
Type species: M. angustifolia (Aiton) Michx.
Eriolobus (DC.) M.Roem., Fam. Nat. Syn. Monogr. 3: 104, 216. 1847.
Type species: E. trilobatus (Labill. ex Poir.) M.Roem.

Species overview

M. adstringens – M. angustifolia – M. baccata – M. baoshanensis – M. brevipes – M. coronaria – M. crescimannoi – M. domestica – M. doumeri – M. florentina – M. floribunda – M. fusca – M. halliana – M. honanensis – M. hupehensis – M. ioensis – M. kansuensis – M. komarovii – M. leiocalyca – M. maerkangensis – M. mandshurica – M. melliana – M. muliensis – M. ombrophila – M. orientalis – M. orthocarpa – M. prattii – M. prunifolia – M. pumila – M. sargentii – M. sieversii – M. sikkimensis – M. spectabilis – M. sylvestris – M. toringo – M. toringoides – M. transitoria – M. trilobata – M. tschonoskii – M. yunnanensis – M. zhaojiaoensis

Nothospecies: M. × adstringens – M. × arnoldiana – M. × astracanica – M. × atrosanguinea – M. × dawsoniana – M. × eleyi – M. × denboeri – M. × gloriosa – M. × hartwigii – M. × heterophylla – M. × magdeburgensis – M. × micromalus – M. × platycarpa – M. × purpurea – M. × riversicarnea – M. × robusta – M. × scheideckeri – M. × soulardii – M. × sublobata – M. × zumi
M. adstringens - M. angustifolia - M. arnoldiana - M. ca - M. halliana - M. x - M. sylvestris

References

Miller, P. 1754. Gard. Dict. Abr., ed. 4.

Vernacular names
العربية: تفاح
авар: Гӏеч
azərbaycanca: Alma
башҡортса: Алмағас
беларуская (тарашкевіца): Яблыня
беларуская: Яблыня
brezhoneg: Avalenn
català: Pomera
čeština: jabloň
dansk: Æble-slægten
Deutsch: Äpfel
dolnoserbski: Jabłušcyna
Esperanto: Pomarbo
eesti: Õunapuu
فارسی: سیب
suomi: Omenapuut
Nordfriisk: Aapelbuumer
français: Pommier
galego: Maceira
hrvatski: Jabuke
hornjoserbsce: Jabłučina
magyar: Alma, almafa
հայերեն: Խնձորենի
italiano: Melo
日本語: リンゴ属
ქართული: ვაშლი
한국어: 사과나무속
лакку: Гьивч
Līvõ kēļ: Umārzpūd
lietuvių: Obelis
latviešu: Ābeles
мокшень: Марлю
кырык мары: Олмаву
эрзянь: Умарина
Nedersaksies: Appel
Plattdüütsch: Appels
norsk: Epleslekten
Nouormand: Pommyi
Ирон: Фæткъуыбæлас
polski: jabłoń
português: Macieira
română: Mar
русский: Яблоня
davvisámegiella: Eppelmuorat
Simple English: Malus
slovenčina: jabloň
Soomaaliga: Tufaax
svenska: Aplar
Kiswahili: Mtofaa
Tagalog: Alimangong mansanas
Türkçe: Çiçek elması
татарча/tatarça: Алмагач
удмурт: Улмопу
українська: Яблуня
vepsän kel’: Jablokpu
Tiếng Việt: Chi Hải đường
中文: 苹果属

Malus (/ˈmeɪləs/[2] or /ˈmæləs/) is a genus of about 30–55 species[3] of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple (M. domestica syn. M. pumila) – also known as the eating apple, cooking apple, or culinary apple. The other species are commonly known as crabapples, crab apples, crabtrees, wild apples, or rainberries.

The genus is native to the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere.

Description
Flowering crabapple blooms

Apple trees are typically 4–12 m (13–39 ft) talI at maturity, with a dense, twiggy crown. The leaves are 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in) long, alternate, simple, with a serrated margin. The flowers are borne in corymbs, and have five petals, which may be white, pink, or red, and are perfect, with usually red stamens that produce copious pollen, and a half-inferior ovary; flowering occurs in the spring after 50–80 growing degree days (varying greatly according to subspecies and cultivar).

Many apples require cross-pollination between individuals by insects (typically bees, which freely visit the flowers for both nectar and pollen); these are called self-sterile, so self-pollination is impossible, making pollinating insects essential.

A number of cultivars are self-pollinating, such as 'Granny Smith' and 'Golden Delicious', but are considerably fewer in number compared to their cross-pollination dependent counterparts.

Several Malus species, including domestic apples, hybridize freely.[4] They are used as food plants by the larvae of a large number of Lepidoptera species; see list of Lepidoptera that feed on Malus.

The fruit is a globose pome, varying in size from 1–4 cm (0.39–1.57 in) diameter in most of the wild species, to 6 cm (2.4 in) in M. sylvestris sieversii, 8 cm (3.1 in) in M. domestica, and even larger in certain cultivated orchard apples. The centre of the fruit contains five carpels arranged star-like, each containing one or two seeds.
Subdivisions and species

About 42 to 55 species and natural hybrids are known, with about 25 from China, of which 15 are endemic. The genus Malus is subdivided into eight sections (six, with two added in 2006 and 2008).

Subgenus	Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
Section Chloromeles (Decaisne) Rehd.		Malus angustifolia (Aiton) Michx.	Southern crabapple	Eastern and south-central United States from Florida west to eastern Texas and north to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri
		Malus coronaria (L.) Mill.	Sweet crabapple	Great Lakes Region and in the Ohio Valley, United States
		Malus ioensis (Alph.Wood) Britton	Prairie crabapple	Upper Mississippi Valley, United States
		Malus brevipes (Rehder) Rehder	Shrub apple
Section Docyniopsis Schneid.		Malus doumeri (Bois) A.Chev.	Taiwan crabapple	China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang), Taiwan, Laos, Vietnam
		Malus leiocalyca S. Z. Huang		China (Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Yunnan, Zhejiang)
		Malus meliana Handel-Mazzeti		China (Schuian)
		Malus tschonoskii (Maxim.) C.K.Schneid.	Chonosuki crabapple and pillar apple	Japan
Section Eriolobus (Seringe) Schneid		Malus trilobata (Poir.) C.K.Schneid.	Lebanese wild apple, erect crabapple, or three-lobed apple tree	Asia includes West and South Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, and North Palestine, Europe from east section of Greek Thrace (Evros Prefecture) and southeastern Bulgaria
Section Florentinae (Rehder) M.H.Cheng ex G.Z.Qian[5]		Malus florentina (Zucc.) C.K.Schneid.	Florentine crabapple, hawthorn-leaf crabapple	Balkan Peninsula and Italy
Section Gymnomeles Koehne		Malus baccata (L.) Borkh. 1803	Siberian crabapple	Russia, Mongolia, China, Korea, Bhutan, India, and Nepal
		Malus halliana Koehne 1890	Hall crabapple	Japan and China
		Malus hupehensis (Pamp.) Rehder 1933	Tea crabapple	China
		Malus mandshurica (Maxim.) Kom. ex Skvortsov	Manchurian crabapple	China, Japan, eastern Russia
		Malus sikkimensis Wenz.) Koehne ex C.K.Schneid.	Sikkim crabapple	China, Nepal, Bhutan, and India
		Malus spontanea (Makino) Makino		Japan
Section Malus Langenfelds		Malus asiatica Nakai	Chinese pearleaf crabapple	China and Korea
		Malus chitralensis Vassilcz.	Chitral crab apple	India, Pakistan
		Malus crescimannoi Raimondo		North-eastern Sicily
		Malus floribunda Siebold ex Van Houtte	Japanese flowering crabapple	Japan and East Asia
		Malus muliensis T.C.Ku		China (Sichuan)
		Malus orientalis Uglitzk.		Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, and Russia
		Malus prunifolia (Willd.) Borkh.	Plum-leaf crabapple, Chinese crabapple	China
		Malus domestica Miller, 1768	Orchard apple, includes Malus niedzwetzkyana and M. pumila	Central Asia (mountains of Kazakhstan)[6]
		Malus sieversii (Ledeb.) M.Roem.		Southern Kazakhstan
		Malus spectabilis (Aiton) Borkh.	Asiatic apple, Chinese crabapple	China (Hebei, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang)
		Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill.	European crabapple	Europe
		Malus zhaojiaoensis N.G.Jiang	Zhaojiao crab apple	China (Sichuan)
Section Sorbomalus Zabel		Malus fusca (Raf.) C.K.Schneid.	Oregon or Pacific crabapple	Western North America from Alaska, through British Columbia, to northwestern California
		Malus kansuensis (Batalin) C. K. Schneider	Calva crabapple	China (Gansu, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan)
		Malus komarovii (Sarg.) Rehder		China, Manchuria, and North Korea
		Malus sargentii Rehder.	Sargent crabapple	Japan
		Malus toringo (Siebold) de Vriese	Toringo crabapple or Siebold's crabapple	Eastern temperate Asia, in China, Japan, and Korea
		Malus toringoides Hughes	Cut-leaf crabapple	China(Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, and Sichuan)
		Malus transitoria C.K.Schneid.	Cut-leaf crabapple	China (Gansu, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, E Xizang)
		Malus zumi (Matsum.) Rehder		Japan (Honshu)
Section Yunnanenses (Rehd.) G.Z.Qian[7]		Malus honanensis Rehder.	Honan Crabapple	China (Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanxi)
		Malus ombrophila Handel-Mazzetti		China (Sichuan, Xizang,Yunnan)
		Malus prattii (Hemsl.) C.K.Schneid.	Pratt's crabapple	China (Guangdong, Guizhou, west Sichuan, and northwest Yunnan)
		Malus yunnanensis C.K.Schneid.	Yunnan crabapple	China (Yunnan)

Natural hybrids

Malus × micromalus – midget crabapple

Cultivation
'Evereste' fruits
Crabapple bonsai tree taken in August

Crabapples are popular as compact ornamental trees, providing blossom in spring and colourful fruit in autumn. The fruits often persist throughout winter. Numerous hybrid cultivars have been selected.

Some crabapples are used as rootstocks for domestic apples to add beneficial characteristics.[8] For example, the rootstocks of Malus baccata varieties are used to give additional cold hardiness to the combined plants for orchards in cold northern areas.[9]

They are also used as pollinizers in apple orchards. Varieties of crabapple are selected to bloom contemporaneously with the apple variety in an orchard planting, and the crabs are planted every sixth or seventh tree, or limbs of a crab tree are grafted onto some of the apple trees. In emergencies, a bucket or drum bouquet of crabapple flowering branches is placed near the beehives as orchard pollenizers. See also Fruit tree pollination.

Because of the plentiful blossoms and small fruit, crabapples are popular for use in bonsai culture.[10][11][12]
Cultivars

These cultivars have won the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-[13]

'Adirondack'[14]
'Butterball'[15]
'Comtesse de Paris' [16]
'Evereste'[17]
'Jelly King'='Mattfru'[18]
'Laura'[19]
Malus × robusta 'Red Sentinel'[20]
'Sun Rival'[21]

Other varieties are dealt with under their species names.
Culinary uses

Crabapple fruit is not an important crop in most areas, being extremely sour due to malic acid (which like the genus derives from the Latin name mālum), and in some species woody, so is rarely eaten raw. In some Southeast Asian cultures, they are valued as a sour condiment, sometimes eaten with salt and chilli or shrimp paste.

Some crabapple varieties are an exception to the reputation of being sour, and can be very sweet, such as the 'Chestnut' cultivar.[22]

Crabapples are an excellent source of pectin, and their juice can be made into a ruby-coloured preserve with a full, spicy flavour.[23] A small percentage of crabapples in cider makes a more interesting flavour.[24] As Old English Wergulu, the crab apple is one of the nine plants invoked in the pagan Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm, recorded in the 10th century.

Applewood gives off a pleasant scent when burned, and smoke from an applewood fire gives an excellent flavour to smoked foods.[25] It is easier to cut when green; dry applewood is exceedingly difficult to carve by hand.[25] It is a good wood for cooking fires because it burns hot and slow, without producing much flame.[25]
Gallery

Apple blossom. Eastern Siberia

Ripe wild crab apples (Malus sylvestris)

Trunk

References

Cirrus Digital Purple Prince Crabapple
Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607
Phipps, J.B.; et al. (1990). "A checklist of the subfamily Maloideae (Rosaceae)". Can. J. Bot. 68 (10): 2209–2269. doi:10.1139/b90-288.
Ken Wilson and D.C. Elfving. "Crabapple Pollenizers for Apples". Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. Retrieved 12 Sep 2013.
GUAN-ZE QIAN, LIAN-FEN LIU, DE-YUAN HONG, GENG-GUO TANG (2008). "Taxonomic study of Malus section Florentinae (Rosaceae)". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 158 (2): 223–227. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2008.00841.x.
"The History of the "Forbidden" Fruit". www.nationalgeographic.com. National Geographic Partners. Retrieved July 22, 2014.
G.-Z. Qian, L.-F. Liu, G.-G. Tang (2006). "A new section in Malus (Rosaceae) from China" (PDF). Annales Botanici Fennici. 43 (1): 68–73. JSTOR 23727279.
Apple Tree Rootstocks Ecogardening Factsheet #21, Summer 1999
Alaska Department of Natural Resources [https://web.archive.org/web/20080719050542/http://www.dnr.state.ak.us/ag/21Applerootstocks.pdf Archived 2008-07-19 at the Wayback Machine
Biel, John. "Collecting and Training Crab Apples | American Bonsai Society". www.absbonsai.org. American Bonsai Society. Archived from the original on 3 July 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
"Crabapple (Malus) - Bonsai Empire". www.bonsaiempire.com. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
Walston, Brent. "Crabapples for Bonsai". evergreengardenworks.com. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
"AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 63. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus 'Adirondack'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus 'Butterball'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"Malus 'Comtesse de Paris'". RHS. Retrieved 6 January 2021.
"RHS Plantfinder -Malus 'Evereste'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus Jelly King = 'Mattfru'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus 'Laura'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus × robusta 'Red Sentinel'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"RHS Plantfinder - Malus 'Sun Rival'". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
"The Growing Guide". Stark Bro's Nurseries & Orchards Co. Archived from the original on 2014-07-26.
Rombauer, I.; Becker, M. R.; Becker, E. (2002) [2002]. All About Canning & Preserving (The Joy of Cooking series). New York: Scribner. p. 72. ISBN 0-7432-1502-8.
"The Science of Cidermaking". Andrew Lea. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
Fraser, Anna (22 August 2005). "Properties of different trees as firewood". Retrieved 17 July 2008.