'Bramley's Seedling' and 'Cox's Orange Pippin' are familiar to almost everyone, two of many thousands of Domestic Apple varieties grown worldwide. Supermarkets stock only about 25 common varieties, so it is well worth visiting a local autumn orchard or, where there is room, planting a more unusual variety at home. Also known as Orchard Apple.
Cultivated. Partly originating in Central Asia, where one of its ancestors still grows wild, the Domestic Apple has been grown for its delicious fruit for millennia. Common in gardens and orchards, it is also widely naturalised, found everywhere in hedgerows, thickets, abandoned ground and woodlands.
Syn. Malus pumila. Of cultivated origin, arising from hybridisation (mostly deliberate crossing) of European Wild Apple and Wild Apple (Malus sieversii), the latter dominating the walnut-fruit forests of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Monoecious, with hermaphrodite flowers, but usually not self-fertile. Insect- and wind-pollinated, the seeded pome dispersed by birds and mammals; 'wild' seedlings rarely show the cultivar parents' traits.
Given its hybrid origins and many cultivated forms, only a general description is possible. Height 10m, often leaning with age, with sinuous trunk and branches. Bark grey-brown, scaly. Young shoots and buds downy. Leaves oblong (12cm), variably crumpled, irregularly serrate, matt with downy undersides, on a 2-5cm downy petiole. Pink flower buds open to pink-white blossom in spring. Fruit an edible pome at least 4cm across. European Wild Apple differs: spiny twigs, smaller fruit, crooked leaf apex.
Varieties are always propagated by cuttings grafted onto rootstocks that determine final size, from miniature (M27) to large standard (M25). 'Wild' escapees are extremely variable and unreliable for fruiting. Cultivars are 'cookers', 'eaters' or 'cider' types (the last rich in sugars and tannins, subdivided into sweet, bittersweet, sharp and bittersharp). Ensure a nearby pollinator. Trees can be trained as fan, espalier, cordon, bush or standard; prune to shape in winter and remove laterals in summer for fruiting.
Traditional apple orchards foster a huge diversity of wildlife and are recognised as a priority habitat for conservation. The wood of old trees harbours rare invertebrates, the blossom is a favourite of bees and hoverflies, and apples left on trees or as windfalls are loved by thrushes and by wasps drawn to the fermenting fruit's sugars.
Aphids and Codling Moths (Cydia pomonella) are major pests.
Apples are the most produced tree fruit globally, around 100 million tonnes a year, European production concentrated in Poland, Italy and Romania, with lesser amounts from France, Germany and Spain. Though not chiefly ornamental, its blossom can be spectacular and its fruit lends colour and texture to a garden. Apple timber comes only in small dimensions but has attractive figure and is strong and stable, used for small turned and cabinet items.
