Malus pumila Mill.

Cultivated Apple; Common Apple

Tree

Perennial

Vascular

Cultivated Apple is an introduced deciduous tree in the Rose family (Rosaceae). It is of hybrid origin containing genes of several species native to Eurasia. In Alabama it has been collected as a rare escape (or more commonly persisting from cultivation) in widely scattered locations. Cultivated Apple grows along roadsides, in pastures, and around old homesites or orchards. It is a small tree reaching 15-30 feet in height. The bark is gray in color and fairly smooth. Young twigs are reddish brown in color and glabrous or pubescent. Leaves are alternate, often clustered on short shoots or near the ends of branches, petiolate, lanceolate-ovate to ovate in outline, with serrate margins. The leaves are glabrous (or nearly so) above and pubescent below. Flowers are solitary or in few-flowered clusters on short spur branches. They are produced before or with the new leaves. The flowers have 5 green sepals, 5 pale pink petals, and 20 stamens. The fruit is large reddish or green pome. Cultivated Apples of many varieties are readily available from nurseries. The fruit is eaten raw, cooked, or used for juice or cider production.—A. Diamond.

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Not Native G5 (Global Rank)

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