Chinese Crab Apple

This species is used as grafting stock for apple trees in Hubei and Sichuan. Its young leaves can be processed as a tea substitute. It has showy flowers in the spring and abundant, beautiful fruit in the autumn, and can be used as an ornamental tree.

Trees to 8 m tall. Branchlets initially dark green, purple or purplish brown when old, terete, initially puberulous, glabrous when old; buds dark purple, ovoid; scales sparsely ciliate at margin. Stipules caducous, linear-lanceolate, 5–6 mm, herbaceous or membranous, sparsely pubescent, margin sparsely glandular denticulate, apex acuminate; petiole 1–3 cm, sparsely puberulous when young, glabrescent; leaf blade ovate or ovate-elliptic, 5–10 × 2.5–4 cm, sparsely puberulous when young, glabrescent, base broadly cuneate, rarely rounded, margin acutely serrulate, apex acuminate. Corymb 4–6 cm in diam., 4–6-flowered; bracts caducous, lanceolate, membranous, margin sparsely glandular serrate when young, apex acuminate. Pedicel 3–6 cm, sparsely villous when young, later glabrous. Flowers 3.5–4 cm diam. Hypanthium campanulate, adaxially glabrous or sparsely villous. Sepals triangular-ovate, 4–5 mm, ca. as long as or shorter than hypanthium, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pubescent, margin entire, apex acuminate or acute. Petals pink in bud, becoming white, obovate, ca. 1.5 cm, base shortly clawed, apex rounded. Stamens 20 unequal, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Ovary 3- or 4-loculed, with 2 ovules per locule; styles 3(or 4), slightly longer than stamens, tomentose basally. Pome yellowish green, tinged red, ellipsoid or subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 3–6 cm, glabrous; sepals caducous; with a small scar at apex. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Aug–Sep. 2n = 51*, 68*.

Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Zhejiang.

Slopes, valley thickets; sea level to 2900 m.

Pyrus hupehensis Pampanini, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n.s., 17: 291. 1910, not (C. K. Schneider) Bean (1933); Malus domestica Borkhausen var. hupehensis (Pampanini) Likhonos.

Malus hupehensis, common names Chinese crab apple, Hupeh crab or tea crabapple, is a species of flowering plant in the apple genus Malus of the family Rosaceae.

It is native to China.