What this small tree lacks in size it gains in common names, many outrageously vulgar and the butt of jokes comparing its fruit to body parts. Cultivated since at least Roman times and in obsessive demand in the Medieval period, it has gathered colourful names, the politer including 'dog's bottom' and 'open-arse' (used by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet). The fruit base has a narrow puckered opening (a hypanthium).

Native to south-east and south-west Asia (not Germany, despite its epithet) and considered an archaeophyte in Britain and Ireland. It is occasionally found 'in the wild', but such trees are usually relics of abandoned orchards or gardens, since it rarely regenerates from seed, spreading mostly by suckering.

Monoecious, with hermaphrodite flowers. Insect-pollinated. Mammal-dispersed. Short-lived (60 years).

The wild form is small (8m), with a tangle of thorny branches. Bark grey-brown, scaly, with long vertical plates lifting away. Twigs orange-brown, densely white-haired then smooth, with grey lenticels; buds ovoid, pointed. Foliage dark green, turning orange-red in autumn. Leaves elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, 8-15cm, dull, wrinkled and downy (more so beneath), finely serrate. Flowers white, 6cm, late (May-June). Fruit a dull red-brown pome (2-3cm), hairy and firm, with a wide hollow-looking hypanthium and five persistent sepals. Cultivated forms are thornless with larger fruit (3-8cm).

The true form is rarely planted or stocked; most cultivated trees are grafted cultivars, often on Rowan or Common Hawthorn rootstock for vigour and wide soil tolerance. It thrives in full sun or dappled shade and deep fertile soils, needs little pruning, and can be hedged on an east-west line. Cultivars include 'Large Dutch', 'Iranian', 'Royal' and 'Nottingham'. Fruit is picked after leaf-fall in October and eaten once softened by cold ('bletting'), when the green, acidic, tannic flesh turns brown and sweet; its wrinkled look limits supermarket appeal.

Bees feed on flowers in late spring.

Generally a healthy species. Like many trees in , it is susceptible to fireblight caused by Erwinia amylovora.

Fruit production, yielding delicious pomes rich in vitamin C.