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Telopea 9 ( 2 ): 2001 
hybridisation with other Malus spp. took place during the westerly migration of the 
orchard apple and, on the other, that 'M. sieversii' is just one aspect of very variable but 
monospecific wild apple populations in Central Asia. In these populations forms can 
be found resembling the major groups of cultivated apples seen in Europe and taken 
thence around the world; for a popular account of these stands where 'every tree is a 
different variety', see Browning (1998: 60). 
Latin names for orchard apples 
'Granny Smith' is therefore a cultivar of that Asiatic wild Malus, but what is the correct 
binomial to apply to the species? It may seem almost incredible to laypeople that 
scientists cannot agree on the name for so common and important a plant as the apple 
(cf. Comer 1946), for, despite the fact that some authors have recently settled on (the 
illegitimate) name, M. domestica Borkh., following Korban & Skirvin (1984), though the 
most recent published opinion (Kartesz & Gandhi 1992) argues for M. sylvestris, there 
is disarray in the popular as well as systematic and floristic literature. In current use 
are a number of names, used as species or as hybrid names — M. communis Desf. (e.g. 
the International Book of Fruit and used consistently in many French books in the 
nineteenth century), M. domestica (Mansfeld 1986: 355-63; Given & Sykes 1988; Terpo 
1988; Harden & Rodd 1990; Vaughan & Geissler 1997: 52-61), M. pumila (Rehder 1949; 
Zohary & Hopf 1988,1994; Le Bon Jardinier ed. 153 1992; Ghjora & Panigrahi 1995), M. 
sylvestris (Browicz 1972; Symon 1986; Maxwell et al. 1988, as subsp. rnitis); yet other 
names have been used in the past. 
Linnaeus's apple names 
Most of these names ultimately rest on names published in the works of Linnaeus, 
who included apples under the genus Pyrus. It is therefore necessary to examine 
Linnaeus's names and to typify them, thereby typifying Malus names based on them. 
These typifications refer to the Linnaean names and do not affect 'standards' for 
cultivar names. 
As with citrus fruit (Mabberley 1997b), DJM needed to clarify this matter for updating 
The Plant-book (Mabberley 1987,1997a), as well as for the book on Church's work, and 
approached CEJ, coordinator of the Linnaean Plant Name Typification Project, and 
BEJ, pomologist and supervisor of the DNA work in Oxford. 
i. PYRUS foliis ferratis, pomis ball concavis. Hort.cliff. Malts. 
189. Hort. upf. 130. FI. fuec. 402. Mat. med. 227. 
Roy. lugdb. 266. Hall. helv. 35-1. 
Malus fylveflris. Baub. pm. 435". Dod, pempt. 790. fylvelhis. 
ft, Malus pumila, quas potius frutex quam arbor. Baub. paradifiaca. 
/»»• 433 - 
Malus prafomila. Baub. pm. 433. prafomila. 
^ Malus _ fativa, frudlu fanguinei colon's ex auftero fub- rubcllianal 
dulci. 'Tournef. inft. 635". 
f. Mala curtipendula didta.' Baub. bift. j.p. 11. ceftiana. 
Epirotica. £. Poma orbiculata. Ruell. Jlirp. 
Habitat in Europa. t> 
Fig. 1. Linnaeus's entry for Pyrus malus. 
