The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus kirghisorum Al.Fed. & Fed.

Kirghiz apple

Description

Malus kirghisorum is a tree up to 10 m tall with a broad, umbrella-shaped crown and long, slender, unarmed branches. Its leaves are papery, 5–10 cm long and more or less hairless. The flowers are pale pink and 3–5 cm across. The fruit is extremely variable: yellowish, greenish or reddish, round to cylindrical and 3–8 cm across. Unripe, it looks very sour, but it ripens to a good red and is merely tart1. The 2022 revision of the genus describes trees of 10–14 m with yellow or green fruit2.

It flowers in April and May; its fruit matures between July and October2.

Range and habitat

It grows in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan2,3, in the apple forests or among other small trees, mainly on north-facing slopes at 1,200–1,800 m1, at forest edges on slopes and in valleys2. It was described in 19493; the specimen chosen as its type was collected in 1944 in a walnut forest in the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan2.

Relationship to the cultivated apple

Barrie Juniper and David Mabberley regard it as a distinct species growing alongside the Asian wild apple, Malus sieversii, in the Tian Shan, and intermediate in character between it and the Siberian crab apple, Malus baccata. Local botanists reported hybrids among the three to Juniper, though he did not see any himself1.

Where the sources disagree

  • Species or not. Plants of the World Online and the 2022 revision accept it as a species3,2, as did Juniper and Mabberley1. Others have treated it as a subspecies or variety of Malus sieversii1,2, and in 2014 genetic admixture analyses found it indistinguishable from M. sieversii4. Plants of the World Online itself, in 2020, sank it with M. sieversii into Malus domestica1.
  • Where it grows. Plants of the World Online and the 2022 revision give Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan3,2; Trees and Shrubs Online quotes flowering and fruiting times for Kazakhstan1.
  • Size. Trees and Shrubs Online gives a tree up to 10 m1, the 2022 revision 10–14 m2.

Sources

  1. Malus kirghisorum, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: the description (small tree to 10 m with a broad crown, leaves 5–10 cm, flowers 3–5 cm, pale pink, fruit extremely variable, yellowish, greenish or reddish, 3–8 cm, maturing red and tart); flowering April–May and fruiting August–September (Kazakhstan, after Dzhangaliev and colleagues); habitat in apple forests or with other small trees, mainly on north-facing slopes, 1,200–1,800 m; treated as a distinct species by Juniper and Mabberley and by Dzhangaliev and colleagues, intermediate between M. sieversii and M. baccata; reported hybrids; treated by others as a subspecies or variety of M. sieversii; sunk by Plants of the World Online (2020) into M. domestica; the name Kirghiz apple.
  2. A revision of the genus Malus Mill. (Rosaceae), Jing-chao Li, Jian-quan Liu and Xin-fen Gao, European Journal of Taxonomy 853: 1–127, 2022. Supports: accepted as a species: tree 10–14 m, pome 3–8 cm, yellow or green, flowering April–May and fruits mature July–October; at forest edges on slopes or in valleys; distribution Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan; lectotype collected in 1944 at Toi-taipan, Jalal-Abad, Kyrgyzstan, in a walnut forest; treatments as M. sieversii subsp. kirghisorum (Likhonos 1974) and var. kirghisorum (Langenfeld 1991).
  3. Malus kirghisorum Al.Fed. & Fed., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name and authority, published in 1949; native range "C. Asia to Afghanistan" (Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan).
  4. The domestication and evolutionary ecology of apples, Amandine Cornille and others, Trends in Genetics 30(2): 57–65; Wageningen University repository, 2014. Supports: admixture analyses showing M. kirghisorum, the wild apple of the forests of Kyrgyzstan, indistinguishable from M. sieversii.