The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne

Sikkim crab; Sikkim crabapple

Description

Malus sikkimensis is a small tree, 6 to 8 m tall, whose young shoots are grey and woolly. Its leaves are elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 5–7 cm long, grey and woolly beneath when young, with sharp teeth. The flowers are 2.5–3 cm across, with petals white above and pink beneath. The fruit is dark red with white dots, egg- or pear-shaped and 1–1.8 cm across, and the sepals fall before it ripens. In China it flowers from May to July and fruits in September and October. Plants with 34, 51 and 68 chromosomes have been counted1.

It is close to the Siberian crab apple but distinctive: the hairiest species of its group, sometimes shrubby but capable of making a 10 m tree with stout, woody spurs on its trunk2.

Range and habitat

It grows in the eastern Himalaya and south-western China, in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and north-eastern India and in Tibet, Sichuan and Yunnan1,3, and Plants of the World Online adds northern Myanmar4. It grows in open forest on slopes and in mixed forest in valleys at 2,500–3,000 m. In China it is rare, with small, isolated populations threatened by forest clearance1. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2014 as Data Deficient3.

History

It was first described from material that J. D. Hooker collected at high altitude in Sikkim in 1849, and a tree at Kew, presumed to come from his seed, was long established there by 18952.

Where the sources disagree

  • Authority. Plants of the World Online cites the name as (Wenz.) Koehne4; the 2022 revision of the genus writes (Wenz.) Koehne ex C.K.Schneid.5.
  • Myanmar and Guizhou. Plants of the World Online includes northern Myanmar4; the IUCN Red List includes Guizhou, which the Flora of China does not list1,3.

Sources

  1. Malus sikkimensis, Flora of China vol. 9, Gu Cuizhi and Stephen A. Spongberg, Flora of China, eFloras.org, 2003. Supports: the description (small tree 6–8 m, young branchlets grey-tomentose, leaves 5–7 cm, grey-tomentose beneath, flowers 2.5–3 cm, petals white above and pink beneath, pome dark red, white-dotted, obovoid or pear-shaped, 1–1.8 cm, sepals falling, flowering May–July and fruiting September–October, 2n = 34, 51, 68); open slope forests and mixed valley forests at 2,500–3,000 m in W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang and NW Yunnan, and in Bhutan, NE India, Nepal and Sikkim; "a rare species with small, isolated populations threatened by forest clearing".
  2. Malus sikkimensis, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: close to M. baccata but distinctive; sometimes shrubby, capable of a 10 m tree with stout woody spurs on the trunk; the hairiest species of its group; first described from material collected by J. D. Hooker at high altitude in Sikkim in 1849; a tree at Kew long established by 1895; diploids, triploids and tetraploids recorded; the common name Sikkim crab.
  3. Malus sikkimensis, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T50050877A50671549, L. Rhodes and N. Maxted, 2016. Supports: Data Deficient, assessed 1 July 2014; population trend unknown; native to Bhutan, China (Guizhou, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan), India (Assam, Sikkim) and Nepal; forest habitat; the common name Sikkim crabapple.
  4. Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name and authority, published 1890; basionym Pyrus pashia var. sikkimensis Wenz.; native range "Nepal to SC. China and N. Myanmar".
  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. sikkimensis accepted as one of 26 wild species, with the authority (Wenz.) Koehne ex C.K.Schneid..