The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus transitoria (Batalin) C.K.Schneid.

Description

Malus transitoria is a shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, with felted young shoots. Its leaves are small, 2.5–5 cm long, felted at least beneath and usually irregularly cut into three to five lobes. The flowers are only 1–2 cm across, with white petals, and the fruit is yellowish red, round to oblong and 6–8 mm across; the sepals fall before it ripens. It flowers in May and fruits in September. Plants with 34 and 51 chromosomes have been counted1.

The leaves that open later in the season are the lobed ones, and the fruit can be bright red to yellow and pear-shaped. It resembles Malus toringo and Malus toringoides (which Trees and Shrubs Online calls M. bhutanica), but both surfaces of its leaves and its flower stalks are felted2.

Range and habitat

It grows in thickets and on slopes, on the hills of the Loess Plateau and by roadsides, at 1,500–3,900 m, in Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan and eastern Tibet1; the IUCN Red List adds Henan, Ningxia and Yunnan3. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2014 as Data Deficient3.

Uses and history

It resists drought and cold, and it has been used as a rootstock for apples in north-eastern and north-western Shaanxi1. Batalin described it, as a Pyrus, from herbarium specimens collected in Gansu, comparing its fruit to small peas. William Purdom sent seed to the Arnold Arboretum in 1911 from western Gansu, where it had been “brought in by Tibetans”2.

Where the sources disagree

  • Varieties. The Flora of China recognises three varieties, among them one with hairless leaf undersides, from high altitudes in eastern Tibet, and one with longer fruit, from high altitudes in Gansu, Qinghai and Shaanxi, and suggests that Malus setok may be an allied species or an ecotype1,2. Plants of the World Online sinks these names into the species4, and the 2022 revision found no support for any infraspecific divisions5.

Sources

  1. Malus transitoria, Flora of China vol. 9, Gu Cuizhi and Stephen A. Spongberg, Flora of China, eFloras.org, 2003. Supports: the description (shrubs or small trees to 8 m, leaves 2.5–5 cm, tomentose, usually irregularly 3–5-parted, flowers 1–2 cm, petals white, pome yellowish red, 6–8 mm, sepals falling, flowering May and fruiting September, 2n = 34, 51); thickets, slopes, hills of the Loess Plateau and roadsides at 1,500–3,900 m in Gansu, Nei Mongol, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan and E Xizang; resistant to drought and cold; used as stock for apples in NE and NW Shaanxi; three varieties, var. transitoria, var. glabrescens and var. centralasiatica; M. setok perhaps an allied species or ecotype.
  2. Malus transitoria, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: later-emerging leaves usually 3–5-lobed; var. glabrescens from high altitude in eastern Tibet and var. centralasiatica from high altitude in Gansu, Qinghai and Shaanxi; fruit bright red to yellow, rounded to pear-shaped, 6–8 mm; similar to M. toringo and M. bhutanica, distinguished by tomentose leaf surfaces and pedicels; described by Batalin from herbarium specimens collected in Gansu, likening the fruit to small peas; diploids and triploids recorded; introduced through seed sent to the Arnold Arboretum by William Purdom in 1911 from western Gansu; uncertainty about the identity of many cultivated plants.
  3. Malus transitoria, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T50086205A50086245, L. Rhodes and N. Maxted, 2016. Supports: Data Deficient, assessed 1 July 2014; native to China (Gansu, Henan, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan).
  4. Malus transitoria (Batalin) C.K.Schneid., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name and authority, published 1906; basionym Pyrus transitoria Batalin; native range "E. Tibet to N. & C. China"; var. glabrescens, var. centralasiatica, M. setok and M. centralasiatica 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. transitoria accepted as one of 26 wild species; none of the analyses supporting infraspecific categories in it; var. centralasiatica and other names reduced to synonymy.