Crab apples: The star turn of autumn

Kitty Scully discusses the role of the fruit as food and in biodiversity.

Crab apple trees grow wild and freely in Irish hedgerows and woodland and in most respects, they closely resemble cultivated apples, differing chiefly in size and certainly, flavour.

The exact origin of cultivated apples is complex and it is widely believed they originated from a wild apple native in a range of mountains that stretch across Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and parts of China. Other research indicates Malus sylvestris, the wild crab apple native to Ireland, was also involved in the origin of the cultivated apple.