Which is the crab apple?

[jojo]

I was looking for crab apples this morning and found two trees next to each other. They both have "apples" on them but quite different. Are they both types of crab apples or two different species? Which one is the real crab apple? The bottom ones are slightly bigger than the one on the top photo and more elongated and green. Thanks

 

[Ahjno]

Hmmm tough one from just a pic - though my feeling says the top one would be the crabapple ... The bottom one looks a bit too cultivated to me (looks a bit like a "Granny Smith" apple). I'll keep an eye on this thread

 

[jasons]

last sunday myself and a few frends went forgeing and picked some crab apples and hawthorn berrys and made some verry yummy jam. its the bottom picture

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Hard to tell for sure - crabs can be anything from almost microscopic to a couple of inches in size and a variety of colours - take a look at this lot for example:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=crab+apples&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

I'd say that 'true' crab apples are really quite small (couple of inches max) and that what you have are actually 'wildings' - sort of apple crosses, if you like. I remember the guy at Brogdale telling us that apple seeds rarely grow true to form which would explain the vast diversity of 'wild' types of apple.

 

[Bisamratte]

Hard to tell for sure - crabs can be anything from almost microscopic to a couple of inches in size and a variety of colours - take a look at this lot for example:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=crab+apples&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

I'd say that 'true' crab apples are really quite small (couple of inches max) and that what you have are actually 'wildings' - sort of apple crosses, if you like. I remember the guy at Brogdale telling us that apple seeds rarely grow true to form which would explain the vast diversity of 'wild' types of apple.

Looking at all the photos on google I dont think many people know what Crab apples look like (even I'm not too sure). I think lots of people see a wild apple tree and assume its a crab apple.

 

[spamel]

Take a bite out of the apples. If it tastes good, it's not crab apple. If it draws your gums back over your teeth like Esther Rantzen, you've found crab apple!!

 

[Tantalus]

I would have said neither of those are crab apples

Definitely apples, but they look too big and too green, the crab apples I have picked in the past were maximum about golfball size and red / yellow with yellow flesh

Dont let that stop you picking them and eating them though , I am sure they will be delicious.

Tant

 

[chickenofthewoods]

It's difficult, I think a lot of people do tend to use the term crab apple generically without having too clear an idea of what they look like.

But here in Kent, Malus Sylvestris (crab apples) are used as interplanting in our orchards for pollenation and all of the ones we tend to see have tiny little brightly coloured apples (very bright yellow or red, and tiny). Just to confuse things further, Malus, and Malus Syvestris are two slightly different types but both appear to be 'crabs'. Go figure!

http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantselector/plantdetail.aspx?plantid=43098

Oh yeah, and bitter - or very tart! Def. not eaters.

 

[Montivagus]

I was going to say neither! They looked, to me, like commercial species that simply weren’t doing well. But….I then took a look at the Google pics on the link bellow and a whole world of doubt has opened up.

 

[JonnyP]

Well, I reckon they could both be crabs, though the top one looks more like a crab apple to me.
There are around 35 different types of crab apple, malus. I have one called butterball in my garden, very yellow fruit. All types are edible, though, may need cooking first...

 

[swyn]

As far as I am aware 'crab' apples are the real thing, ie true apples. Anything else are either eaters or cookers. Explanation... Hybrid growth is grafted onto wild rootstock and you get either cookers or eaters.
I would say Spamel has the taste thing correct! Then selection/hybridisation takes over and size increases plus sweetness and flavour.
From a non expert that is all really that I can say.
Swyn.

 

[JonnyP]

As far as I am aware 'crab' apples are the real thing, ie true apples. Anything else are either eaters or cookers. Explanation... Hybrid growth is grafted onto wild rootstock and you get either cookers or eaters.
I would say Spamel has the taste thing correct! Then selection/hybridisation takes over and size increases plus sweetness and flavour.
From a non expert that is all really that I can say.
Swyn.

Says in my RHS encyclopedia that only some of the 35 species of malus are unpalatable, if uncooked.....

 

[swyn]

If that is what your book says then I agree. I love cooked apple...take the core out...fill with brown sugar and cook in oven/microwave... yum. OOPs off subject!
Swyn.

 

[jojo]

I should have given the sizes The apples on the top photos are slightly more than an inch and round, the other ones are bigger, one being about 2 inches high. I followed your advice Spamel and put my life on the line and took a bite of each just now: still alive and both tasted quite good So, probably not crab apples then. never mind, I'll go back tomorrow and get a bag full of them any good receipes? :You_Rock_ Thanks guys

 

[spamel]

I'd just like to add I am in no way an expert in fruit and its' edibility and that by tasting those apples you take full responsibilty for your actions, so therefore I cannot be held responsible if you get the squits or worse!!

Edit: 100 more till I reach the sacred 1000 club!!!

 

[jojo]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh its started, quick where is the bathroom ... Don't worry, I did not swallow any anyway! just had a look on the link below, didn't realise there were so many varieties going under the name crab apple :You_Rock_

 

[Floyd Soul]

They could both be crab apples, or crossed with a variety. If you take the seed of one variety of apple and plant it, it will grow into a new apple that could be completely different from it's parent. A different size, colour or taste. Thats why we have so much varieties of apple.

 

[Montivagus]

any good receipes?

Swyn's baked apples idea is great.....though I'd say it can be improved if you mix cinnamon with the sugar and flambe them with calvados just before you serve

 

[Tadpole]

I was looking for crab apples this morning and found two trees next to each other. They both have "apples" on them but quite different. Are they both types of crab apples or two different species? Which one is the real crab apple? The bottom ones are slightly bigger than the one on the top photo and more elongated and green. Thanks

From the look of the pictures I’d say neither are true crap-apples, they look like domestic variety that have gone wild. On my Saturday run, I picked a medium sized bag full of what looks like the variety in the topmost picture, and whilst they are tart, they are no way as tart as true crap-apples. I’d say a wild seeded cooking apple, is most likely the apples in both the pictures.

I noticed (and had this confirmed by a American friend) that the American variety of crab-apples (called crabapples) have a reddish flesh and make a crimson coloured jelly or jam when cooked. The English variety has a yellowish colour when cooked rather than a green colour. But that might just be the type of crab-apples I cooked.

any good receipes? Thanks guys

Recipes hundreds of them.
One that is great to do if you have kids (or not) is to bake them in a pastry case. Or if you are rushed for time in tin-foil. It’s a dish that the kids can make on their own, it’s not too complicated and is almost impossible to get wrong.

Take an apple wash it and core it (don’t peel it) you’ll need an apple corer for this. Unless you are good with a knife and can cut out the core leaving the apple whole. (I’m sure you’ll all find a way )

In the space where the core was, fill with a equal mix of dried fruit and brown sugar, a few winter spices mixed in to the sugar would not go a miss. then either wrap it in pastry, folding up the ends so they look like a coffee pouch (as made by seany boy). Or wrap it in a double layer of tin foil, tightly scrunched, again to look like a coffee pouch, to keep the steam in.
Bake on the middle shelf (on a tin tray or baking sheet) in a moderate oven for 20 minutes for a medium sized apple or a bit longer for a larger apple. Take to the table still wrapped, serve with ice-cream.
If cooked right the apple will be whole but the flesh inside will be streamed to a purée, you can eat the skin or not as the mood takes you, the once dried fruit will be rich and plump, and the sugar will be a runny caramel.

 

[trouble]

Many of the apple trees growing wild in the UK are what are termed 'wildling apples' which grow from the seeds of cultivated apples discarded in the countryside. Verges of roads and woodland rides are common locations to find such trees from cores thrown out of car windows and those left by walkers.

Cultivated varieties of Malus domestica to not come 'true to type' from seed which is one reason why an apple variety is propagated by grafting onto rootstocks which effectively produces cloned trees (the other main reason for grafting being control of vigour as apples tend to grow to big on their own roots for orchard production).

The wild Crab Apple, Malus Sylvestris, is one of the progenitors of the domestic type and they interbreed quite readilly (which is why Crab Apple is often planted in the hedges adjoining orchards to improve pollination). So there is a lot of Malus domestica genes floating about in the Malus sylvestris gene-pool and many trees in the wild are hybrids showing a varying mix of influence, this is confused even further my the huge variety of ornamental Crab Apple varieties also adding their genes to the mix.

All this makes ID of apple trees very difficult but in general crab apples have less elongate leaves and more hairs on the leaves and stems than their domestic cousins. Using this criteria I would say that neither of the pictures show crab apples.