plum-leaf crabapple

Photo: Bruce Marlin — CC BY 3.0 · source

Survives zone 3 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Known as plum-leaf or Chinese crabapple, this hardy small tree bears yellow-to-red pomes to about 2 cm across that are edible but typically mealy and astringent, though some forms and individual specimens have been recorded with a sweet, pleasant taste — it has long served in China as a rootstock for grafted apple.

Hardiness

Zone 3–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Summer–autumn

Mature size

Small tree 5–10 m

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–7.0 (near-neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Native to temperate China, documented across Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hunan, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, and Yunnan provinces — growing wild on slopes and plains from sea level up to 1,300 m.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

Years to fruit

2–4 yrs

Growth speed

Medium — reaches roughly 8 m tall and 8 m wide at maturity.

Spacing

700 cm (276 in) apart — about 49 m² (527 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, simple, elliptical to narrowly ovate, 4–9 cm long, pinnately veined with finely serrated margins — green above, paler and slightly downy beneath.

Root system

As with other Malus, forms a fibrous, wide-spreading root system rather than a deep taproot; the species is specifically noted as a vigorous, compatible rootstock onto which grafted apple scions are commonly worked.

Fruit description

Small yellow-to-red pome, roughly 20 mm (up to about 2.5 cm) in diameter, ripening in early fall. Texture is mealy; flavor is usually astringent, though some cultivars and individual fruits (one tasted at Kew scored sweet, low-acid, and pleasant) are much less bitter.

Propagation

Seed is best sown fresh in autumn in a cold frame, germinating by late winter — stored seed needs 3 months' cold stratification at 1°C and may still take 12 months or more to germinate. Mature-wood cuttings can be taken in November under a frame. Named forms are grafted, and the species itself is noted by PFAF as an excellent understock for grafting cultivated apple onto.

Pollination

⚠ Mostly SELF-INCOMPATIBLE — needs a 2nd cultivar

Pollinator partners

apple

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.