WILD CRAB APPLE
Flower, fruit and leaves one-half natural size.
The bark on the branches is smooth, thin and red-brown in color, while on the trunk the thicker bark often breaks into scales. The twigs are at first hoary-hairy, but soon become smooth and reddish.
The leaves are alternate, simple, 3 to 4 inches long and almost as broad. They are sometimes slightly lobed and sharply and deeply toothed. They are dark green and shiny above, but pale and hairy beneath, borne on stout, hairy petioles.
The flowers, which are from one to two inches broad, are borne in clusters of 3 to 8, on wooly pedicels about an inch long. The white or rosy petals form a cup which surrounds the numerous stamens and the five styles. The calyx is pubescent.
The fruit ripens in October, forming a globose, pale green, very fragrant apple with a waxy surface. It is about an inch in diameter, flattened at each end.
Like the other crabs, its handsome flowers have a delicious fragrance which makes the tree popular for planting for ornamental purposes. The fruit is sometimes gathered for jelly. The wood is heavy, close-grained and reddish-brown.
The wild sweet crab, Malus coronaria Mill., differs from the above in having more nearly smooth leaves and calyx. It is rarely found in Illinois but is common in Ohio. A cultivated variety, Malus ioensis plena Rheder, is sold under the name of Bechtel’s crab, and has large, double, rosy-pink blossoms.
