For July. J 923 



179 



American Crab Apples 



A^IOXG the small North American trees still im- 

 perfectly known to botanists and wood-lovers and 

 scarcely known at all to gardeners are the different 

 species, varieties and hybrids of the Wild Apple. Nine 

 species of these trees are now recognized with several 

 varieties, and two hybrids and their varieties. They have 

 white or pink fragrant flowers wliich do not open until 

 the leaves are partly or entirely grown, and green or pale 

 yellow fragrant frv.it wh.ich hangs on slender stems and, 

 with the exception of that of the species from the nortli- 

 western part of the country, is depressed-globose, usually 

 from an inch to two and a half inches in diameter and 



J branch of Bcchtcl Crab 



covered wilh a waxy secretion. -\11 the species spread 

 into thickets and are excellent plants for the decoration 

 of wood-borders and glades. Some of the species have 

 only been distinguished in recent years, and although the 

 species and manv of the varieties are now growing in the 

 Arboretum several of these have not yet flowered ; only 

 two or three of these Crab Apples can be found in com- 

 mercial nurseries. 



IMalus gl.mxe.^cen.s, which is named from the pale 

 glaucous color of the under surface of the leaves, is the first 

 of the American species to flower, at the Arborettim. It is 

 a shrub usually rather than a tree, not more than fifteen 

 feet high, with stems four or five inches in diameter. The 

 flowers are white or rose color, up to an inch and a half 

 across, and the pale yellow fruit is often from an inch to 

 an inch and a half in diameter It is common in several 

 western New York coimties and ranges to western Penn- 

 sylvania, southern Ontario and Ohio, and occurs on the 

 southern Appalachian Mountains to northern Alabama. 



M.\LUS loENScs begins to o]>en its flowers several days 

 later than ]M. glaucescens. Th.is is the common Crab 

 Apple of the northern middle western states, and in a 

 number of varieties has a wide range southward through 

 Missouri to western Louisiana and Texas. It is a tree 

 sometimes thirty feet high v.-ith a trunk often eighteen 

 inches in diameter, a wide open head of spreading 

 branches and usually incised leaves tomentose on the lower 

 surface, flowers often two inches wide with white or rose- 

 colored petals, and fruit hanging on stout hairy stems, 

 and up to an inch and a half in diameter. The common 

 form of this tree in southern [Missouri, .Arkansas and 

 eastern Oklahoma (var. Palmeri), a small tree with spin}' 



branches and smaller leaves, is flowering in the Arboretum 

 for the first time this year. A form of this tree with 

 double flowers (var. plena), the Bechtel Crab, named for 

 the man who found it several years ago growing in the 

 woods in one of the western states, has opened its pale 

 rose-colored flowers which look like small Roses. When 

 in flower this is one of the jjopular trees of the Arboretum, 

 judging by the number of persons who want to get close 

 to it. This double-flowered Crab can now be found in 

 many of the large American nurseries, but these nursery 

 trees are often short-lived, probably because the common 

 orchard Apple on v.'hich they are usually grafted does not 

 suit them as stock. Persons buying the Bechtel Crab 

 should insist that it be grafted on one of the American 

 Crab Apples, the best for the purpose being the single- 

 flowered t_vpe of M. ioensis. 



M.ALL'S coKu.\ARi.\, sometimes called the Garland Tree, 

 is the common eastern species, although it does not ap- 

 [jroach the coast north of Pennsylvania and Delaware and 

 ranges west to Missouri. It is a leautiful tree sometimes 

 twenty-five feet high with a short trunk, pink flowers 

 rather more than an inch in diameter and depressed 

 L;"l.il)nse fruit. From M. glaucescens it is distiniiuished hv 



Sargent's Crab 



the green under surface of the leaves, and from M. ioensis 

 by the absence of pubescence on the leaves, fruit stalks 

 and young shoots. The calyx on one variety (var. dasy- 

 calyx) not rare in Ohio and Indiana is thickly covered 

 with white matted hairs. A form with long acuminate 

 leaves (var. elongata) which sometimes forms dense im- 

 penetrable thickets grows in western New York to Ohio, 

 and on the southern Appalachian Mountains from West 

 Virginia to North Carolina.' Recently a double-flowered 

 form of M. coronaria has been found growing in the 

 woods near Waukegan, Illinois (var. Charlotte or the 

 Charlotte Crab). The flowers are larger and whiter than 

 those of the Bechtel Crab, and there is no reason why the 

 Charkjtte Crab should not become as great or a greater 

 garden favorite. It is now growing in the Arboretum but 

 the jjlants are too young to flower. 



{Continued on page 180) 



