Leaves triangular-ovate or ovate, acute or acuminate at apex, cordate or rarely truncate at base, lobed with 2 or 3 pairs of short-acute or short-acuminate coarsely serrate lobes, when they unfold bronze color and sparingly covered with caducous hairs, glabrous when fully expanded, and at maturity dark yellow-green and lustrous above, pale below, 2½′—3′ long and 2′—2½′ wide, with 5—7 pairs of prominent primary veins, the lowest pair from the base of the leaf; petioles slender, glabrous, ⅘′—1¼′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots more deeply lobed and often 4′ long and 3½′ wide. Flowers about 1¼′ in diameter, on slender glabrous purple pedicels ⅗′—1¼′ long, in 4—7-flowered clusters; calyx-tube purple and glabrous, the lobes glabrous on the outer surface, slightly longer than the tube; petals suborbicular or broadly ovate, abruptly contracted below, about ⅗′ wide, often erose-denticulate; stamens about one third shorter than the petals; styles 5, slightly longer than the stamens, villose below the middle. Fruit on slender pedicels about ⅘′ in length, depressed globose, slightly angled, distinctly ribbed at the deeply impressed apex, about 1¼′ high and 1½′ in diameter, with a deep basal cavity; seed obovoid-oblong, about ⅓′ long.
A tree, 18°—25° high, with a short trunk rarely 1° in diameter, spreading branches often armed with stout straight spines up to 1½′ in length, and glabrous purple branchlets, becoming purple-brown and slightly lustrous at the end of their first season, dull red-brown in their second year, and ultimately grayish brown. Winter-buds ovoid or oblong-ovoid, acute, glabrous, dark purple-brown up to ¼′ in length.
Distribution. A common Crab Apple in the valleys of western North Carolina at altitudes of 2000°—3500°; near Biltmore, Buncombe County, Dillsboro, Jackson County, and Highlands, Macon County.
2. [Malus glaucescens] Rehd. Crab Apple.
Leaves triangular-ovate or ovate, acute, short-acuminate or rounded at apex, truncate or rounded at base, those of flowering branchlets more or less lobed and coarsely serrate with abruptly acuminate teeth, their lobes triangular, broad-ovate and abruptly acuminate, those of the lowest pair usually the longest, bronze color and covered with thin floccose tomentum when they unfold, soon glabrous, dull yellowish green above, glaucescent below, 1½′—3½′ long and 1¼′—3′ wide, with 4—7 pairs of prominent primary veins; turning yellow or dark purple and falling early in the autumn; petioles slender, slightly villose at first, soon glabrous, 1½′—3′ in length; stipules filiform, purple, glabrous or slightly villose, about ⅓′ long; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, acuminate, rounded or slightly cordate at base, often deeply lobed, 3′—3½′ long, 3′ wide, with petioles 1½′—2′ in length. Flowers 1⅓′—1½′ in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, ⅘′—1¼′ in length, in usually 5—7-flowered clusters, calyx-tube coated with floccose caducous pubescence or glabrous, slightly shorter than the long-acuminate lobes densely tomentose on the inner surface; petals oval, abruptly contracted below into a long claw, white or rose color, ½′—⅗′ wide; stamens about one third shorter than the petals; styles 5, about as long as the stamens, densely villose below and united at base for about one fourth of their length. Fruit depressed globose, pale yellow when ripe, 1′—1¼′ high, 1¼′—1¾′ in diameter, with a shallow only slightly corrugated cavity at apex and a shallow concave depression at base.
An arborescent shrub or small tree, rarely more than 15° high, often spreading into thickets, with a trunk 4′ or 5′ in diameter, spreading spinescent branches forming an open irregular head, and slender branchlets slightly pubescent at first, soon glabrous, bright red-brown in their first and second years, becoming dark gray-brown and marked by yellow lenticels. Bark dark gray, divided by shallow longitudinal fissures and finally separating into small thin scales.
Distribution. Glades and open woods in rich soil; western New York (Ontario, Munroe, Cattaraugus and Erie Counties) to southern Ontario, western Pennsylvania (near Carnot, Allegheny County); and southeastern and northern Ohio; Tiptop, Tazewell County, Virginia; near Spruce Pine, Mitchell County, North Carolina; slopes of Lookout Mountain, above Valleyhead, DeKalb County, Alabama; apparently most generally distributed and most abundant in Ohio.