Hall Crab Apple

This species has been used as an ornamental because of its purplish red young branches and leaves and pink, showy flowers in the spring.

According to Bean (Trees Shrubs Hardy Brit. Isles, ed. 8, 2: 699. 1981), this is a Japanese species and does not occur in China. Further study is required on Chinese specimens attributed to Malus halliana.

Malus halliana is similar to M. baccata, which differs by its serrulate leaves, white petals, and apically acuminate sepals larger than the hypanthium.

Trees to 5 m tall. Branchlets purple or purplish brown, terete, slender, puberulous when young, glabrescent; buds purplish brown, ovoid, glabrous or scales ciliate at margin. Stipules caducous, lanceolate, small, 4–6 mm, membranous, puberulous adaxially, margin glandular denticulate when young, apex acuminate; petiole 0.5–2.5 cm, sparsely pubescent when young, glabrescent; leaf blade dark green and often tinged purple adaxially, ovate, elliptic, or narrowly elliptic, 3.5–8 × 2.5–4.5 cm, glabrous except sometimes puberulous along midvein, base cuneate or subrounded, margin obtusely serrulate, apex long acuminate. Corymb 4–6 cm in diam., 4–6-flowered; bracts caducous, lanceolate, membranous, margin entire, apex acuminate. Pedicel pendulous, purple, 2–4 cm, slender, sparsely pubescent. Flowers 3–3.5 cm diam. Hypanthium glabrous abaxially. Sepals triangular-ovate, 3–5 mm, ca. as long as or slightly shorter than hypanthium, abaxially glabrous, adaxially tomentose, margin entire, apex obtuse. Petals often more than 5, pink, obovate, ca. 1.5 cm, base shortly clawed, apex rounded. Stamens 20–25, unequal, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Ovary 4- or 5-loculed, with 2 ovules per locule; styles 4 or 5, slightly longer than stamens, long tomentose basally. Pome purplish, pyriform or obovoid, 6–8 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 2–4 cm, subglabrous; sepals caducous; with a small scar at apex. Fl. Mar–Apr, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 34*, 51*.

Anhui, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

Thickets on slopes or by streams; sea level to 1200 m.

Malus domestica Borkhausen var. halliana (Koehne) Likhonos; M. floribunda Siebold ex Van Houtte var. parkmanni Koehne; Pyrus halliana (Koehne) Voss.