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Saturday 18th April, 2009

Peter Hyde’s crab apple

By Ash

Yesterday afternoon was nice, I had an hour to wait, and I was fairly close by something I wanted a look at: a crab apple tree. My father knew there was one in a particular graveyard, right in front of my great-grandparents’ grave, so I paid a visit. Now I don’t think this tree is a wild crab apple (Malus sylvestris), but it is definitely a Malus and there are plenty to choose from. The Collins Tree Guide (Johnson, 2004) says there are “about 30 species and several thousand hybrid cultivars…”

The tree was well in leaf and covered in these pinky-red flower buds which may open into flowers of a different colour.

The lawn under the tree was covered in small, red crab apples in various states of decay. One or two were still attached to the tree.

Near the bottom of the trunk was this band. I wondered if it was where a scion has been grafted onto a rootstock, but it’s probably just scarring caused by having formerly been tightly strapped to a support.

The crab apple in leaf, in front of a larger, leafless tree. As you can see, this crab is quite a small tree – I reckon it about ten foot tall.

Leaf. Note the small, rounded teeth and the glossy surface. Studying it now I’ve noticed a tiny lobe on the top margin a third of the way in from the right, and a fold at the opposite point on the bottom margin. Typical that I didn’t notice if this was typical to all the leaves! The Tree Guide tells me that a number of Malus species have lobed leaves and at least one, the Japanese crab (Malus floribunda), normally having smooth-margined leaves, has “the odd big lobe on strong growths”.

I said the tree was in a graveyard; at it’s base was this small plaque.

IN MEMORY OF OUR FRIEND PETER HYDE

tags: apple + flowers + photos + spring

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Monday 16th June, 2008

A walk in Millstones Wood (4th June 2008)

By Ash

Walking up Long Lane to Millstones Wood you pass by two small woods on Whitwell Moor. This is the second.

These are parts of a tree I've seldom seen in Millstones Wood. I think it's a crab apple (Malus sylvestris), but I'm not certain. Can anybody ID this for me?

Little sunlight penetrates the beech canopy. A typical characteristic of the average beechwood is a shady floor.

Beeches. The many-branched beech to the left was probably grazed as a sapling which prevented it from growing with a single main stem.

Not sure what this is supposed to symbolise, or if it's just pure art, but I found it carved into one of the trees.

A male inflorescence and accompanying whorl of needles on a Scots pine.

The female flower of a Scots pine, only a few millimetres in height. In a couple of years this small red blob will have matured into a hard, woody pine cone. treeblog has already done a post on Scots pine reproductive organs (about this time last year).

Stunted pines on the top of the hill, just outside of the wood. Although I think only pines can be seen in this photo, there is at least one larch in the group.

From the vantage point beneath this pine, enjoy the view in the general direction of Sheffield and take in some of the Peak District landscape typical to my local area. In the foreground is a field of strangely neat gorse.

tags: apple + European beech + gorse + larch + photos + Scots pine

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apple

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