The World of Apples

Wild apples

Malus yunnanensis (Franch.) C.K.Schneid.

Yunnan crab; Yunnan crabapple

Description

Malus yunnanensis is a tree up to 10 m tall. Its leaves are ovate, 6–12 cm long, usually felted beneath and doubly toothed, with three to five lobes on each side. The flowers, about 1.5 cm across, are white and come in clusters of eight to twelve; the fruit is red, round, 1–1.5 cm across and dotted with white, and keeps its sepals. It flowers in May and fruits in August and September. It has 34 chromosomes in its body cells1.

It grows into a narrow, upright tree. Its fruit is astringent and gritty with stone cells, and in some collections brown when ripe; the leaves can colour orange-red in autumn2.

Range and habitat

It grows in mixed forest on slopes and by streams in valleys, at 1,600–3,800 m, in Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet and Yunnan, and in Myanmar1; the IUCN Red List adds Hunan3. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2014 as Data Deficient3.

Uses and history

It adapts to poor conditions, and in western China it is used as a rootstock for apples; with its red autumn leaves and abundant red fruit it is also an ornamental tree1. It became known to Western science from a collection made by the missionary Père Delavay in 1886 in the Heishanmen of north-western Yunnan, and Franchet named it, as a Pyrus, from his specimens. The Veitch nursery introduced it to European gardens from Ernest Wilson’s collection of 1901 in western Hubei. Its closest relatives are probably Malus prattii and Malus ombrophila2. The 2022 revision of the genus accepts it as one of 26 wild species5.

Where the sources disagree

  • Variety veitchii. The Flora of China accepts a variety, veitchii, with ovate, usually heart-based leaves nearly hairless beneath1; Trees and Shrubs Online finds the distinction unclear, with intermediate forms known2; Plants of the World Online treats the name as a synonym4.

Sources

  1. Malus yunnanensis, 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 6–12 cm, doubly serrate, 3–5-lobed each side, flowers about 1.5 cm, petals white, styles 5, pome red, globose, 1–1.5 cm, white-dotted, sepals persistent, flowering May and fruiting August–September, 2n = 34); mixed forests on slopes and by streams in valleys at 1,600–3,800 m in Guizhou, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang and Yunnan, and Myanmar; red autumn leaves and fruit; adaptable to poor conditions and used as stock for apples in W China; var. veitchii.
  2. Malus yunnanensis, Julian Sutton and Nick Dunn, Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), 2021. Supports: narrow, upright habit; fruit astringent and gritty with stone cells, sometimes brown; late flowers and orange-red autumn colour; M. prattii and M. ombrophila its likely closest relatives; known to science from Père Delavay's collection of 1886 in the Heishanmen, north-west Yunnan, named by Franchet; introduced to Europe by the Veitch nursery from Ernest Wilson's collection in western Hubei in 1901; var. veitchii and its unclear distinction; an apomictic triploid collected as M. yunnanensis; the common name Yunnan crab.
  3. Malus yunnanensis, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T50132808A50132811, L. Rhodes and N. Maxted, 2016. Supports: Data Deficient, assessed 1 July 2014; native to China (Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan) and Myanmar; the common name Yunnan crab apple.
  4. Malus yunnanensis (Franch.) C.K.Schneid., Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Supports: accepted name and authority, published 1906; basionym Pyrus yunnanensis Franch.; native range "Tibet to C. China and Myanmar"; var. veitchii treated as a synonym.
  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. yunnanensis accepted as one of 26 wild species.