The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus toringo (Siebold) de Vriese

Toringo crabapple; Siebold crabapple; Japanese crabapple

Description

Malus toringo is a shrub or small tree, usually 2 to 6 m tall, with spreading purple shoots. Its leaves are ovate to narrowly elliptic, 3–7.5 cm long and toothed, often three-lobed and on new shoots sometimes five-lobed. The flowers are 2–3 cm across and pinkish1, or white from pink buds3; the fruit is red or brownish yellow and only 6–8 mm across. In China it flowers in April and May and fruits in August and September. Plants with 34 and 51 chromosomes have been counted1.

Only leaves that form and expand in the same season are lobed, so the lobed leaves become more prominent as the year goes on. In the wild the species is more variable than in gardens, with trees up to 10 m tall and red-fruited forms common. It is mainly a sexual diploid, though triploids and tetraploids also occur3.

Range and habitat

It grows in Japan, Korea and Sakhalin and across much of China3,5, in mixed forests, among shrubs and on slopes from 150 to 2,000 m1. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2014 as Data Deficient4.

Uses and history

It has long been grown as an ornamental in Japan and China, and it has been used as a rootstock for apples in north-eastern China3, including in Liaoning and Shandong1. Philipp von Siebold, who practised medicine in Nagasaki in the 1820s, described it as a Sorbus in 1848; its epithet, confusingly, comes from a Japanese name for a different apple, Malus asiatica. Its introduction to Europe is conventionally dated to 1856, and a taller form reached the Arnold Arboretum from Japan in 1882. It was once very common in the North American nursery trade3. It may have gone wild in Europe2.

Where the sources disagree

  • Its name. The Flora of China uses Malus sieboldii1; Trees and Shrubs Online notes that the older name, Malus toringo, is now widely accepted3, and the Flora of North America calls the name M. sieboldii illegitimate2.
  • Authority. Plants of the World Online cites the name as (Siebold) de Vriese5; the Flora of North America gives (Siebold) Siebold ex de Vriese2.
  • Hybrid or variety. The Flora of North America reports that some treat Malus × zumi as a variety of M. toringo and others as a hybrid of M. baccata and M. toringo2; in Japan it has usually been treated as M. toringo var. zumi3; Plants of the World Online accepts it as a hybrid6.

Sources

  1. Malus sieboldii, Flora of China vol. 9, Gu Cuizhi and Stephen A. Spongberg, Flora of China, eFloras.org, 2003. Supports: treated under the name M. sieboldii with M. toringo as a synonym; the description (shrubs 2–6 m, leaves 3–7.5 cm, often 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed on new branches, flowers 2–3 cm, petals pinkish, pome red or brownish yellow, 6–8 mm, flowering April–May and fruiting August–September, 2n = 34, 51); mixed forests, scrub and slopes at 150–2,000 m in the provinces listed, and in Korea and Japan; ornamental; sometimes used as stock for grafting apples in Liaoning and Shandong.
  2. Malus toringo, Flora of North America vol. 9, Elizabeth E. Dickson, Flora of North America, eFloras.org. Supports: authority (Siebold) Siebold ex de Vriese; introduced in North America and possibly naturalised in Europe; var. sargentii and var. zumi; M. × zumi considered by some a variety of M. toringo and by others a hybrid of M. baccata and M. toringo; M. sieboldii Rehder and Pyrus sieboldii Regel illegitimate names belonging here; the common names.
  3. Malus toringo, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: variable in the wild, taller trees to 10 m and red-fruited forms; only leaves formed in the current season lobed; mainly a sexual diploid, with triploids and tetraploids; the older name M. toringo now widely used instead of M. sieboldii; long cultivated in Japan and China and used as a rootstock in north-eastern China; described as a Sorbus in 1848 by Philipp von Siebold, who practised medicine in Nagasaki in the 1820s; the epithet taken from a Japanese name for M. asiatica; introduction to Europe conventionally dated 1856; a taller form sent to the Arnold Arboretum by Sargent in 1882; once very common in the North American nursery trade; M. × zumi usually treated in Japan as M. toringo var. zumi.
  4. Malus toringo, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T61855279A174151787, L. Rhodes and N. Maxted (amended version of 2016 assessment), 2020. Supports: Data Deficient, assessed 1 July 2014; native to China (provinces listed), Japan (Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, Shikoku), North Korea and South Korea.
  5. Malus toringo (Siebold) de Vriese, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name with the authority (Siebold) de Vriese, published 1856; basionym Sorbus toringo Siebold; native range "China to Korea, Sakhalin to Japan"; M. sieboldii Rehder a synonym; introduced in parts of Europe and North America.
  6. Malus × zumi (Matsum.) Rehder, Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: M. × zumi accepted as a hybrid, native to Japan, with M. toringo var. zumi among its synonyms.