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Malus domestica

Apple tree

Blatt (CC BY-SA 4.0) Alice Kracht

Short Description

The apple tree is a deciduous tree that can grow up to 15 m tall. The crown is broad with many branches.

The leaves grow alternately on the branch. They are generally roundish to oval with felt-like hairs. The leaf margins are serrated.

The trunk is generally short and has a silvery-grey scaly bark.

The pale-pink to white flowers have a pleasant scent. In rare cases, they can also be red. Individual florets are clustered in smallish cymes.

The edible fruit is the familiar apple. They are rounded, greenish-yellow to dark-red. The “apple pips” are the seeds within the mericarps.

Features

Apple tree

Malus domestica

  • rounded, leaves generally covered in felt-like hairs

  • large fruits (apples)

Blatt (CC BY-SA 3.0) Biswarup Ganguly

In the city

Innumerable hybrids and cultivars exist, frequently found in gardens and parks and grown as ornamental trees or for their fruit. It prefers light, dry to fresh sites.

Fun Facts

  • he apple is an accessory fruit (pseudofruit). Botanically speaking, it is a collective follicle surrounded by a fleshy receptacle.

  • Ripening apples emit gaseous ethane that promotes the ripening of other fruit nearby.

  • The aroma of apples is strongly dependent on the variety, on climatic factors, the time of harvest and the length of storage after harvesting.

  • Approx. 1500 different varieties of apples are available in Germany today.

  • Apple trees flower from April to June.

  • The fruit ripening season is from September to November.

  • Endangerment level Germany: not evaluated

  • The apple tree has arisen as a cross from various wild apples and has become native in Europe for the last 3000 years.

  • Its fruits are grown for food across the world and processed into innumerable products.

Blüte (CC BY-SA 4.0) Alice Kracht

Sources

Blatt, Alice Kracht, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://offene-naturfuehrer.de/web/Datei:Malus_domestica_(5).JPG

Blatt, Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malus_domestica_-_Apple_Leaves_-_Kullu_-_2014-05-09_2200.JPG

Blüte, Alice Kracht, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://offene-naturfuehrer.de/web/Datei:Malus_domestica_(11).JPG

Böhlmann, D. (2015) Laubbäume temperierter Klimate mit ihrer Artenvielfalt, Berlin: Patzer Verlag.

Roloff, A. (2013) Bäume in der Stadt. Besonderheiten - Funktion - Nutzen - Arten - Risiken, Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer.

Page „Kulturapfel“. : Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date of last revision: 28.04.2016, 16:05 UTC. URL: https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kulturapfel&oldid=153910532 (Accessed: 13.05.2016).