Crab-apple

Crab-apple is a term applied somewhat vaguely to any sour and uncultivated variety or species of apple. Thus Pyrus spectabilis of shrubberies is known as the Chinese Crab, P. prunifolia as the Siberian Crab, P. coronaria as the American Crab, and P. baccata of North Asia (including cerasifera) as the Cherry Crab. More strictly, however, the term is applied to the wild varieties of the true apple (P. Malus, var. sylvestris). Of this, again, two main varieties are distinguished, one smooth-leaved and sour (var. austera), the other more or less woolly-leaved and sweeter (var. mitis). The former of these may therefore be considered as the crab-apple proper.