Malus sylvestris
| Malus sylvestris | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Genus: | Malus |
| Species: | M. sylvestris |
| Binomial name | |
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Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill. |
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Malus sylvestris, the European crab apple, is a species of the genus Malus, native to Europe. Its scientific name means "forest apple" and the truly wild tree has thorns.
Wild apple has an expanded crown and often appear more like a bush than a tree. It can live 80-100 years and grow up to 10 m tall with trunk diameters of 23-45 cm. Due to its weak competitiveness and high light requirement, wild apple exist mostly at the wet edge of forests, in farmland hedges or on very extreme, marginal sites. The tree is rather rare but native to most European countries. It occurs in a scattered distribution pattern as single individuals or in small groups.
In the past M. sylvestris was thought to be the most important ancestor of the cultivated apple (M. pumila), which has since been shown to have been originally derived from the central Asian species M. sieversii. However another recent DNA analysis confirms that M. sylvestris has contributed significantly to the genome.
The study found that secondary introgression from other species of the Malus genus has greatly shaped the genome of M. pumila, with M. sylvestris being the largest secondary contributor. It also found that current populations of M. pumila are more closely related to M. sylvestris than to M. sieversii. However in more pure strains of M. pumila the M. sieversii ancestry still predominates.
The flowers are hermaphrodite and are pollinated by insects.
Its leaves are food of the caterpillars of the twin-spotted sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis) and possibly the hawthorn moth (Scythropia crataegella).
Tree
Blossoms at the Botanical Garden KIT, Karlsruhe, Germany
At Vosseslag, Belgium
Pink blossom
Ripe wild crab apples (Malus sylvestris)
Close-up showing fruit and leaves (Southeast Michigan)
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Wikipedia