Malus coronaria - (image 1 of 4)
Taxonomy
Family: Rosaceae
Habitat
Clearings, woodland edges, thickets.
Associates
Distribution
NY west to WI, south to GA, AL, AR, MO.
Morphology
Small tree to 10 m. Branches thorny. Leaves usually glabrous, thin with the veins more or less flush with the surface, the margins irregularly double-serrate, some blades dentate and lobed on the shoot leaves. Calyx lobes, hypanthia, pedicels, and petioles may be densely tomentose but with the tomentum thinning or disappearing by the end of anthesis. Inflorescence umbelliform with 5-6 pink to white, fragrant flowers. Fruit a subglobose, yellow-green, fragrant pome.
Notes
Flowers late April to May
Wetland indicator: Upland
The fruit of this species is sweetly fragrant but rather sour to taste. It has been included in the genus Pyrus in the past and has over a dozen synonyms. Endangered in NY.
This species can hybridize with other Malus species, including the Asian Paradise Apple, Malus pumila Mill., which becomes naturalized from discarded seeds of our domestic apples.
References
Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of
Northeastern United States
and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY
Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.
USDA, NRCS. 2002.
The PLANTS Database, Version 3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov).
National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
|
Michael Hough © 2009 |