The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus prattii (Hemsl.) C.K.Schneid.

Pratt's crabapple

Description

Malus prattii is a tree up to 10 m tall. Its leaves are large, ovate to elliptic and 6–15 cm long, finely toothed and unlobed. The flowers are small, 1.5–2 cm across, with white petals, in clusters of five to twelve. The fruit is red or yellow, egg-shaped or roundish and 1–1.5 cm across, with its sepals still attached. It flowers in June and fruits in August. It has 34 chromosomes in its body cells1. The fruit is dotted with white and its flesh is gritty with stone cells, and the leaves can turn orange-red in autumn2.

Range and habitat

It grows in mixed forest on slopes at 1,400–3,500 m in western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan1,4. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2014 as Data Deficient3.

History and relationships

Hemsley named it in 1895, as a Pyrus, after the English collector Antwerp Pratt, from whose specimens collected in western Sichuan it was described. Ernest Wilson brought it into cultivation from Sichuan, in red- and yellow-fruited forms. Studies of its form and its DNA support a very close relationship with Malus yunnanensis, which has hairier leaves and a wider range2. Plants of the World Online and the 2022 revision of the genus both accept it as a species4,5.

Where the sources disagree

  • Its range. The Flora of China and Plants of the World Online confine it to western Sichuan and north-western Yunnan1,4; the IUCN Red List also lists Guangdong and Guizhou3.

Sources

  1. Malus prattii, Flora of China vol. 9, Gu Cuizhi and Stephen A. Spongberg, Flora of China, eFloras.org, 2003. Supports: the description (trees to 10 m, leaves 6–15 cm, serrulate, unlobed, flowers 1.5–2 cm, petals white, styles usually 5, pome red or yellow, 1–1.5 cm, sepals persistent, flowering June and fruiting August, 2n = 34); mixed forests on slopes at 1,400–3,500 m in W Sichuan and NW Yunnan; basionym Pyrus prattii Hemsley (1895).
  2. Malus prattii, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: fruit dotted white, its flesh gritty with stone cells; orange-red autumn colour; a very close relationship with M. yunnanensis on morphological and molecular grounds; leaves less hairy than those of M. yunnanensis and a narrower range in western China; Hemsley's epithet of 1895 honouring the English collector Antwerp Pratt, from whose western Sichuan specimens it was described; introduced through Ernest Wilson's collections from Sichuan, red- and yellow-fruited; the common name Pratt's Crab.
  3. Malus prattii, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T50050112A50050115, L. Rhodes and N. Maxted, 2016. Supports: Data Deficient, assessed 1 July 2014; native to China (Guangdong, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan); the common name Pratt's crab apple.
  4. Malus prattii (Hemsl.) C.K.Schneid., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name and authority, published 1906; native range "China (W. Sichuan, NW. Yunnan)"; Malus baoshanensis and Docyniopsis prattii among the synonyms.
  5. 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: M. prattii accepted as one of 26 wild species.