﻿Trees of New York State 233 



ROSACEAE 



Pynis coionnriM L. [Mains eoronaria (L.) Mill.] 



Sweet Crab, Fragrant Crab, American Crab Apple 



Habit — -A bushy shrub or small tree 20-30 feet in height with a trunk 6-14 

 inches in diameter. Trunk short, dividing 8-10 feet above the ground 

 into several stout, wide-sjireading limbs to form a broad, round-topped, 

 bushy crown. 



Leaves — Alternate, ovate or nearly triangular, 3-4 inches long, 1^/^-2^^ 

 inches broad, sharply acute at the apex, rounded or acute at the base, 

 the margin incised-serrate with gland-tipped teeth or 3-lobed, at maturity 

 thin, smooth, dark green above, pale green and glabrous or slightly pilose 

 below, borne on slender petioles l%-2 inches long. 



Flowers — Perfect, fragrant, 1^/2-2 inches in diameter, long-pedicellate, 

 appearing during May and early June when the leaves are nearly grown 

 in 5-6-flowered, terminal umbels. Calyx urn-shaped, white-tomentose, 

 5-lobed, the lobes long, acute, subulate-tipped, spreading, hairy on the 

 upper side, persistent in the fruit. Petals rosy-white, obovate, rounded 

 at the apex, clawed at the base, entire or crenulate-serrate, inserted Avath 

 the stamens on the calyx-tube. Stamens usually 20, shorter than the 

 petals, the filaments imited into a tube at the base. Pistil consisting of 

 an inferior 5-celled ovary, 5 filiform styles which are hairy and somewhat 

 united below, and a like number of capitate stigmas. 



Fruit — A depressed-globose, glaucous-green pome, 1^/^-2 inches in diameter, 

 borne on a long, slender stalk, ripening in late autumn and becoming 

 yellowish green and fragrant. Flesh very tart. Seeds chestnut-brown, 

 lustrous. 



Winter characters — Twigs rather stoiit, pale-lenticellate, glabrous or slightly 

 pubescent, reddish browTi. In the second year they become light brown 

 and develop short, stout spurs or sharp spines. Buds ovate, obtuse or 

 acute on the more vigorous shoots, bright red, %-^ of an inch long. 

 Mature bark thin, reddish browTi, divided by shallow fissures into broad, 

 flat-topped, scaly ridges. 



Habitat — In rich moist soil, in copses, open Avoods and along fences, occa- 

 sionally forming thickets of limited extent. 



Bange — Central New York westward through Ontario and Michigan to 

 southern Minnesota, south into the Gulf States. 



Uses — Not a timber species. The acid fruit is sometimes made into preserves. 

 The species has ornamental value because of its showy, fragrant flowers. 



