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Fruit & Orchards Trees

Is this a crabapple?

12 days ago

I feel like I should know this but I’m not terribly familiar with crab apples!
I have a few of these trees growing at the edge of my property. They look like they self seeded because they are growing randomly.
I only just noticed the fruit that they have this year because, long story short they were growing kind of behind an old trailer house that was in our property. We finally got rid of it and cleaned up behind it (lots of scrubby brush and stuff) so that I can mow there now and I’ve noticed the fruit.

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Comments (8)

Ariel
Original Author
12 days ago
Sorry, thought I had all the photos on the first post but apparently not!
Design Fan
12 days ago
Wild cherry?
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Here's a fairly rough composite of two Purple Princes between three Prairiefires. My concern would be flower color; generally, I like pinks that lean toward purple separated from pinks that lean toward coral. But (1) this combination isn't bad; (2) the internet images vary greatly in color, so there's no telling whether this image is accurate; and (3) the bloom time for crabapples is short and the flower colors fade quickly, so even if you don't like the bloom color combination, it will only last for a few days. The purple vs green leaves should look fine together the rest of the season. I don't suppose there's any way to see the actual trees in bloom before deciding?
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Thanks for those suggestions! The paperbark maple is very intriguing. Serviceberry also seems like a good option. I have a Japanese Stewartia, as it so happens - gorgeous tree, but at least mine is quite upright, while I want something that is a bit rounder. Sounds like "Vanessa" ironwood may be the same. I am a little nervous about supposedly disease resistant crabs. While I don't know which variety these trees are, when I've tried to ID them, the possibilities were all to varying degrees resistant (I am an amateur but to my eye, they could be Donald Wyman, Redbud, or Red Jewel). I also have persistent fungal issues in my garden for some reason - I am also trying to mitigate Boxwood volutella blight (which you gave me some great advice on - thanks again!), among other things. But maybe I'm being overconservative or there is no correlation.
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id give it time to see if it releafs after the frost... dead is dead.. when the decision is made.. you properly prune it out.. the tree will fill back out.. in tree time.. might take 3 to 5 years or so.. i wonder if thats the only crab in the world.. that hasnt suckered wildly.... where are you.. z5 is about half the US.. big city name.. how bad was this frost??? ken
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Ariel
Original Author
12 days ago
I forgot to mention, I’m in northern Indiana.
Maybe? I was looking at pictures online and it seems like the leaves on my trees are a little rounder and the blossoms are maybe a little differently shaped but maybe there are different varieties of wild Cherry? It looked similar anyway!! The fruit does look Cherry-ish at this point!
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
12 days ago
It is also far too early in the season for fruit of any kind to be appearing on crabapples. That's a mid to late summer thing.
indianagardengirl
12 days ago
Compare to Pyrus calleryana, a prominent invasive pest in our neck of the woods.
Ariel
Original Author
12 days ago
Good point, gardengal! I hadn’t thought of that!
Nope, they’re not Bradford pears! The blossoms smell amazing—not stinky! 😄
floraluk2
11 days ago
last modified: 11 days ago
It's a cherry. Not a crab. Not a pear. Whether wild or cultivated isn't possible to tell at this stage. The size of the fruit will tell.

Btw if you cut a fruit open it will have a pit. Pomes (apples and pears) have seeds.
Ariel
Original Author
11 days ago
Wow, I’m going to blame my current pregnancy brain on that lapse of common sense! I didn’t even think about cutting the fruit open!! 🤦‍♀️
Thanks!!

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