I have several trees around my property that looks like apple trees by leaves and flowers. They have pretty sharp spikes on the tree, like small sharp branches. They produce tiny large pea size berries on long stems, singles or few growing from the same spot like cherries. They taste sour and somewhat juicy. I saw hawthorns before and they do not look like them but may be it is different kind?
Or could it be a crab apple? By the flesh structure, seed cage and shape of the seeds they look more like pears though. Is there such things as crab pear?
The reason I am asking is the fact I have one of those trees on adjusting neighbor’s land that I maintain for allowing me to grow raspberries there. And if this tree is something that could be grafted on, I may use it as guinea pig to learn grafting, but I want to know what can be grafted there successfully.
I really don’t know. Does pear flower pinkish white? I know it grows probably from seeds, as they pop up in different spots, I removed several from my yard - one large and a lot of small ones. They flower great, the birds love it, but they grow big, take a lot of space and so thorny!
I found several images of the fruit online that looks exactly as the one i posted. They all say - American crabapple. If this is true, I can graft apple on it. What else? And if it is from pear family, what can be grafted on it?
This definitely looks like an ornamental apple to me, malus baccata. I found one that might match yours after a short Google search - Sibearian crabapple
This tree also has the small, sharp branches that look like spikes. I’ve always assumed it was a seedling from one of the ornamental callery pears that are pretty popular in the area.
The tree shape looks like apple. The fruit looks like apples. The spines look like ones found on certain apples. The leaves look like pear leaves. I would guess that it is an ornamental pear. However, apples and pears are so closely related that apples were once considered a species of pear (Pyrus malus). So it could be a cross. Rare but possible. If you do decide to graft something better onto it, then maybe try grafting both apple and pear and see which one takes. Or save that step and just graft Winter Banana which is compatible with both apple and pear roots.
I grafted on a wild crabapple tree near me and the grafts are doing quite good. The fruit look like this, I’ll have to grab a few today to see if it’s a match.
It looks like Mauls cerasifera or in Russia it is known as яблоня вишнеплодная. It is usually a hybrid between Siberian apple and something else. Here in Omaha we have it planted everywhere as ornamental tree. It is often grafted on the regular apple seedlings. I know this because sometimes the graft dies and you can see a regular sized fruits in a row of crab apples.
Thanks everybody! I guess mystery is still there.
The fruit actually do not look like crab apple - they are a size of small cherry, and they do not have that flower end, instead it is just smooth, slightly depressed colored spot there.
I already decided to graft both - pear and apple on it and see. My neighbor has a huge apple tree probably 50+ years old, that would be a first candidate. My other neighbor has very old neglected pear that still producing, so I can try to get some wood from it. Unfortunately, it is 2 streets over and I do not know the owner. I am not sure if the owner appreciate me knocking on the door asking permission to cut few suckers from the pear.
I checked this apple - and liked what I see. But I have no idea where I can get the wood of that type. Is there a place you can order it? Is it really expensive? Because I never grafted before, and most likely will just spoil most of the wood I’ll buy
Well I really think it’s ornamental Siberian crabapple, same as Antmary. It’s available in US nurseries so that’s a good indication it could be your tree. https://www.connonnurseries.com/plant/Malus-baccata-Columnaris
The reason they don’t look the same is they are not one variety. Malus baccata has many varieties and yours is just one of them - they are also used as rootstock so happy grafting
This is from Wikipedia if you want to dig into it :
Subordinate taxa[edit]
The subordinate taxa include[4][7][6]
Malus baccata var. baccata (10–14 meters tall) - China, Korea, Russia, Mongolia
Malus baccata var. daochengensis
Malus baccata var. gracilis (4–6 m) - Gansu + Shaanxi in China
Malus baccata var. himalaica
Malus baccata var. jinxianensis
Malus baccata var. mandshurica (Manchurian crab apple, 5–10 m)
Malus baccata var. xiaojinensis
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