Applecrabs are various hybrids between

crabapple ''Malus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples (sometimes known in North America as crabapples) and wild apples. The genus i ...

s and

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

s. They are bred for varying reasons, including disease resistance and use in cold climates because they are often hardier than apple trees and their fruit has the good eating qualities of apples. Applecrabs are sometimes distinguished from apples if the fruit diameter is less than .

Cold-hardy applecrabs

Director of the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Central Experimental Farm William Saunders (1836–1914) produced a number of such hybrids as part of an effort to develop good-quality eating apples for the Canadian prairies by crossing the domesticated apple

cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s with selected winter-hardy crabapple species.

Cultivar A cultivar is a kind of Horticulture, cultivated plant that people have selected for desired phenotypic trait, traits and which retains those traits when Plant propagation, propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root a ...

s include: * ''Malus'' 'Columbia' is from one of Saunders' early experiments crossing ''M. baccata'' (from

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

) with relatively hardy apples. * ''Malus'' 'Kerr' is from crossing 'Dolgo' crabapple and 'Haralson' apple. * ''Malus'' 'Osman' is from one of Saunders' early experiments crossing ''M. baccata'' with relatively hardy apples. * ''Malus'' 'Rescue' * Malus 'Trailman' is from crossing 'Trail' with 'Osman'.

Scab-resistant apples

A separate project was initiated by C.S. Crandall of the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

to breed scab-resistant apples by introducing the ''VF ''gene from the crabapple '' Malus floribunda''. His work has been continued by the PRI disease resistant apple breeding program with great success. Among the scab-resistant apples that carry the ''VF'' gene are: * ' Pristine apple' * 'Rajka' * 'Topaz'

Red-fleshed applecrabs

Another type of applecrab breeding program stems from '' Malus niedzwetskyana'', a red-fleshed crabapple, a few of which can still be found in

and the Caucasus. It has been used by modern breeders to breed some red-leaved, red-flowered, and red-fruited domesticated

s and crabapples. One example is 'Surprise', a pink-fleshed apple that was brought to the United States by German immigrants around 1840 and was later used by horticulturist

Albert Etter Albert Etter (1872–1950) was an American plant breeder best known for his work on strawberry and apple varieties. Early life and education Albert Felix Etter was born near Shingle Springs, California, Shingle Springs in El Dorado County, Calif ...

to breed some 30 pink- and red-fleshed varieties, the best-known of which is 'Pink Pearl'."The Ettersburg Apple Legacies"
Greenmantle Nursery website Another horticulturist,

Niels Ebbesen Hansen Niels Ebbesen Hansen (January 4, 1866 – October 5, 1950) was a Danish-American horticulturist, botanist, and agricultural explorer for the United States Department of Agriculture and the state of South Dakota. He searched the harsh environments ...

, encountered ''M. niedzwetskyana'' in the Ili valley in what is now

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

during his 1897 expedition to Russia, and began two breeding programs based on this unusual fruit, one aimed at developing a cold-hardy cooking and eating apple and the other aimed at developing ornamental crabapples. His efforts resulted in the 'Almata' apple and the 'Hopa' crabapple, among other varieties. Some of these apples, as well as ''M. niedzwetskyana'' itself, are being used for small-scale commercial production of rosé

apple cider Apple cider (also called sweet cider, soft cider, or simply cider) is the name used in the United States and Canada for an unfiltered, unsweetened, non-alcoholic beverage made from apples. Though typically referred to simply as "cider" in North ...

s."Rosé Ciders to Try This Summer"
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References

External links

Midwest Apple Improvement Association

{{Crabapple Apples Malus

Cold-hardy applecrabs

Scab-resistant apples

Red-fleshed applecrabs

See also

References

External links