| Malus sylvestris | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Genus: | Malus |
| Species: | M. sylvestris |
| Binomial name | |
| Malus sylvestris | |
Malus sylvestris, the European crab apple, also known as the European wild apple or simply the crab apple, is a species of the genus Malus . Its scientific name means "forest apple", reflecting its habitat. It is native to Eurasia.
The wild apple is a deciduous small to medium-sized tree, but can also grow into a multi-stemmed bush. It can live 80–100 years and grow up to 14 metres (46 feet) tall with trunk diameters of usually 23–45 centimetres (9–17+1⁄2 inches), although diameters exceeding 90 cm (35 in) have been recorded. [2] The leaves are roundish-oval and sometimes hairy on the underside. The hermaphrodite flowers appear in May, slightly preceding hawthorn, have white or pinkish petals and are insect-pollinated. The small pome-fruits are around 3 cm (1+1⁄4 in) in diameter, ripen in autumn and fall to the ground. The bark is light brown and breaks up in flakes. [2] The branches are thorny, especially in response to pruning or browsing.
European wild apples hybridise readily with domesticated apples, which can make identification difficult, as hybrids commonly exhibit transitional traits from both parent species. While certain identification relies on genetic testing, field identification can be made by examining the following features. The crown of wild apples is densely branched, whereas the crown of domesticated apples tends to be more loosely arranged with fewer, straighter branches. Wild apple leaves tend to be somewhat smaller, stiffer and shinier. The underside of wild apple leaves also tends to be less hairy than those of both domesticated and hybrid apples, often lacking hairs altogether. Finally, wild apple fruits tend to be smaller, usually below 3 cm (1+1⁄4 in) in diameter, while domesticated and hybrid apples tend to be larger. [2]
Its scientific name means "forest apple".
Like most European tree species, the distribution of the European wild apple was limited to refugia in southern Europe during the Last Glacial Period. For the European wild apple, these refugia seem to have constituted southern France and northern Spain, the Balkans and possibly the Carpathians, respectively. [3] From there, it recolonized the rest of Europe following the glacial retreat at the onset of the Holocene, and the colonization paths find themselves reflected in its modern distribution and genetic structure. Again as in many other organisms in Europe, plants and animals alike, the population of the European wild apple is divided into a large western population and a more strongly differentiated eastern population. Western Europe and northern Europe were most likely colonized from southern France, while eastern Europe was colonized from the Carpathians. In the process, some admixture between both populations seems to have occurred as they met. [3]
In the past M. sylvestris was thought to be the most important ancestor of the cultivated apple (M. domestica), which has since been shown to have been primarily derived from the central Asian species M. sieversii . [4] As confirmed by DNA analyses, M. sylvestris has contributed significantly to the genome. [5] [6] Secondary introgression from other species of the genus Malus has greatly shaped the genome of M. domestica, with M. sylvestris being the largest secondary contributor. Current populations of M. domestica are more closely related to M. sylvestris than to M. sieversii, while in more pure strains of M. domestica, the M. sieversii ancestry still predominates.[ citation needed ]
The tree is widespread throughout Europe, with the exception of the extreme north and south. Additionally, it is also distributed in Anatolia and further into the south Caucasus. [2] It occurs in a scattered distribution pattern as single individuals or in small groups. [7] Due to its weak competitiveness and high light requirement, the wild apple is found mostly at sites where competition is reduced, such as the wet edge of forests, in wood pasture, farmland hedges or on very extreme, marginal sites. [7] In the British Isles it occurs throughout Ireland, England and Wales and with reduced frequency in Scotland. [2] In Scotland, it is most commonly found in woodlands and wood pastures. [2]
The European wild apple is dispersed primarily by mammals, which eat the fruits. In a study from Mols, Denmark, it was determined that cattle accounted for the bulk of dispersal, followed by horses, despite the presence of wild animals. [8] In Britain, the crab apple is associated with 93 species of insect. [9] Its leaves are food of the hawthorn moth (Scythropia crataegella).[ citation needed ]
Throughout its range, the wild apple is threatened and rare. [7] Threats include the introgression from domesticated apples, the lack of natural regeneration and modern forestry practice, which promotes the closure of forest canopy cover, as opposed to the formerly prevailing coppice. [10] [11] In many aspects, the wild apple exhibits adaptations to grazing and the presence of large herbivores, and consequently also a high degree of dependence on them. [8] [10] It is thorny, suitable for coppice due to pronounced resprouting abilities and a very hardy tree. Wild apples may survive crown collapse and the breakage of major branches. [2] In dispersal, it appears to be strongly reliant on bovines and equines. Since the extinction of both wild horses and aurochsen, and the near-extinction of the European bison, domesticated livestock seems to have assumed this role and replaced their extinct relatives. [8] [12] With the abolition of traditional pasturage in town commons beginning in the 16th century, however, and the rearing of livestock in factory farms as a consequence of agricultural intensification, these large herbivores are now largely absent from the landscape. Additionally, while research indicates the widespread existence of half-open savanna ecosystems during Europe's prehistory, shaped and maintained by megafauna, [13] [14] this is no more the case. Nowadays, the landscape in many parts of Europe is marked by closed-canopy forest, often intensively managed, coupled with agricultural fields and urban spaces, with little else and few transitional zones such as mantle and fringe vegetation. [15] As a result, European wild apple today lacks both suitable habitats and dispersal opportunities, resulting in a lack of successful regeneration.
Przewalski's horse, also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after the Russian geographer and explorer Nikolay Przhevalsky. Once extinct in the wild, since the 1990s it has been reintroduced to its native habitat in Mongolia in the Khustain Nuruu National Park, Takhin Tal Nature Reserve, and Khomiin Tal, as well as several other locales in Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
Malus is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the family Rosaceae, including the domesticated orchard apple, crab apples and wild apples.
Prunus cerasifera is a species of plum known by the common names cherry plum and myrobalan plum. It is native to Southeast Europe and Western Asia, and is naturalised in the British Isles and scattered locations in North America. Also naturalized in parts of SE Australia where it is considered to be a mildly invasive weed of bushland near urban centers. P. cerasifera is believed to one of the parents of the cultivated plum, Prunus domestica perhaps crossing with the sloe, Prunus spinosa, or perhaps the sole parent. This would make it a parent of most of the commercial varieties of plum in the UK and mainland Europe - Victoria, greengages, bullace etc.
Malus sieversii is a wild apple. According to DNA analysis conducted in 2010, it is the primary ancestor of the domesticated apple, M. domestica.
The wild horse is a species of the genus Equus, which includes as subspecies the modern domesticated horse as well as the endangered Przewalski's horse. The European wild horse, also known as the tarpan, that went extinct in the late 19th or early 20th century has previously been treated as the nominate subspecies of wild horse, Equus ferus ferus, but more recent studies have cast doubt on whether tarpans were truly wild or if they actually were feral horses or hybrids.
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree. Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus Malus. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, Malus sieversii, is still found. Apples have been grown for thousands of years in Eurasia and were introduced to North America by European colonists. Apples have religious and mythological significance in many cultures, including Norse, Greek, and European Christian tradition.
A crop wild relative (CWR) is a wild plant closely related to a domesticated plant. It may be a wild ancestor of the domesticated (cultivated) plant or another closely related taxon.
Malus baccata is an Asian species of apple known by the common names Siberian crab apple, Siberian crab, Manchurian crab apple and Chinese crab apple. It is native to many parts of Asia, but is also grown elsewhere as an ornamental tree and for rootstock. It is used for bonsai. It bears plentiful, fragrant, white flowers and edible red to yellow fruit of about 1 cm diameter.
Pyrus pyraster, also called European wild pear, is a species of pear of the family Rosaceae.
The Edmund Mach Foundation, formerly the Istituto Agrario di San Michele all’Adige (IASMA), is an agrarian institution and wine academy located in Trentino in north-east Italy. It was founded in 1874, when the Tyrolean Diet at Innsbruck decided to open an agrarian school and research station at San Michele all’Adige, with the aim of improving agricultural practice in Tyrol. The Institute has been located within the premises of former Augustinian monastery of San Michele then abandoned due to its secularization in 1807. The lombardo-venetian enologist Edmund Mach was the academy's first director and the institute developed a reputation for work in viticulture and enology.
Stigmella oxyacanthella is a moth of the family Nepticulidae, found in Europe and North America. The larvae are leaf miners feeding inside the leaves of trees and shrubs, such as hawthorn, apple and pear.
The domestic cat originated from Near-Eastern and Egyptian populations of the African wildcat, Felis sylvestris lybica. The family Felidae, to which all living feline species belong, is theorized to have arisen about ten to eleven million years ago and is divided into eight major phylogenetic lineages. The Felis lineage in particular is the lineage to which the domestic cat belongs.
Malus orientalis, the eastern crabapple or Caucasus apple, is a species in the genus Malus with relatively large yellow fruit. It contributed slightly to the gene pool of domesticated apples, a distant second to M. sieversii.
Phyllocoptes malinus, also known as the apple leaf mite, is a species of mite belonging to the genus Phyllocoptes. It causes a gall, which is a swelling on the external tissues, on the leaves of apples. The mite is found in Europe and was first described by the Austrian zoologist Alfred Nalepa in 1892.
The wood-pasture hypothesis is a scientific hypothesis positing that open and semi-open pastures and wood-pastures formed the predominant type of landscape in post-glacial temperate Europe, rather than the common belief of primeval forests. The hypothesis proposes that such a landscape would be formed and maintained by large wild herbivores. Although others, including landscape ecologist Oliver Rackham, had previously expressed similar ideas, it was the Dutch researcher Frans Vera, who, in his 2000 book Grazing Ecology and Forest History, first developed a comprehensive framework for such ideas and formulated them into a theorem. Vera's proposals, although highly controversial, came at a time when the role grazers played in woodlands was increasingly being reconsidered, and are credited for ushering in a period of increased reassessment and interdisciplinary research in European conservation theory and practice. Although Vera largely focused his research on the European situation, his findings could also be applied to other temperate ecological regions worldwide, especially the broadleaved ones.
Malus × zumi is a naturally occurring hybrid species of crabapple in the family Rosaceae, native to Japan, and a garden escapee in the US state of Ohio. Its parents are Manchurian crab apple Malus mandshurica and Siebold's crabapple Malus sieboldii. It is used as a salt‑tolerant rootstock for apples, Malus domestica, as it can survive NaCl concentrations up to 0.6%. A number of ornamental cultivars are available, including 'Golden Hornet' and 'Professor Sprenger'.
Aymak Djangalievich Djangaliev was a Kazakh pomologist. Along with Nikolai Vavilov, he helped identify the forests of wild apples in Kazakhstan as the origin of the domesticated apple. Following Vavilov's arrest in 1940 for, among other things, his support of Mendelian genetics, which Stalin opposed, Djangaliev continued his work in secret, eventually working to protect and preserve the Kazakh apple forests after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Malus crescimannoi, also known as the Raimondo apple, is a species of apple in the rose family, Rosaceae. Native to the island of Sicily, it was formally described only in 2008, making it one of the most recently described species of tree in Europe. At present unknown is whether the species is a remnant of a preglacial diversity of apples in Europe, or a distinctive race of European wild apple.
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