This species has many confusing common names, both relative to Domestic Apple and to ornamental crab apples. The name here celebrates it as Europe's only native apple, emphasising its natural origins; it is also Common Crab (Apple) or Wild Crab, from the Old English 'crabbe' meaning bitter or sharp. Found across Britain except the higher Scottish Highlands and far north-west Ireland, in woodland gaps and edges, scrub and hedgerows, usually as single trees. IUCN status: Data Deficient.
Native to north-west Europe, including Britain and Ireland, absent only from areas of southern Spain and Portugal, and northern areas of Scandinavia. Its natural range extends into eastern Europe, including Ukraine.
Monoecious, with self-incompatible hermaphrodite flowers (needing another nearby tree for pollination). Mostly insect-pollinated, fertilised flowers producing a small seeded pome dispersed by birds, mammals and water from overhanging trees. It hybridises with Domestic Apple.
A broad-domed tree to 10m (rarely 20m in woodland), with chaotic branching and a dense crown. Bark purple-brown, fissured and scaly with partly lifting plates. Twigs glossy and usually spiny; buds downy-tipped. Leaves ovate to elliptic, 6cm, glossy, softly serrate. Flowers in loose corymbs, pink in bud opening white (3-4cm), April-May. Fruit a small hard, bitter pome (to 4cm), green to yellow. Domestic Apple differs: spineless downy twigs, two-sided-hairy calyx, pink-tinged blossom, larger fruit.
Thrives in many soils, including heavy clay. Shade-intolerant, it grows best in sunny sites such as woodland edges and hedgerows, though it can grow with Hazel under well-spaced large trees in a coppice-with-standards system. It can be coppiced and is long-lived in that form, with girths of 5m recorded.
Its leaves feed the larvae of many moths, including Apple Pigmy (Stigmella malella), Apple Ermine (Yponomeuta malinellus), Feathered Thorn (Colotois pennaria) and Magpie Moth (Abraxas grossulariata). The blossom is a favourite of bees and hoverflies. Fallen autumn fruit slowly softens, becoming palatable to mammals and birds and sustaining wildlife through winter. Trees often host mistletoe.
While it can be infected by various pests and pathogens, the greatest threat is hybridisation with Domestic Apple.
More landowners are encouraged to plant this beautiful native tree to help halt biodiversity loss, and it adds colour and diversity to new woodland edges and as a hedgerow standard. Its timber and fruit have low economic value, though the fruit can be used domestically for tasty preserves and drinks.
