1. Malus angustifolia (Aiton) Michx. (wild crab, narrow-leaved crab apple)

Pyrus angustifolia Aiton

P. angustifolia var. spinosa (Rehder) L.H. Bailey

Pl. 533 a, b; Map 2455

Plants shrubs or small trees to 5(–10) m tall, often colonial from root suckers. Branchlets mostly thorn-tipped. Twigs sparsely to densely short-hairy. Leaf blades folded lengthwise during development, 3–7 cm long, 3 or more times as long as wide, oblong-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, angled or tapered at the base, rounded to bluntly or broadly pointed at the tip, the margins somewhat irregularly, sharply toothed, those of at least the larger leaves usually shallowly lobed, the surfaces glabrous at maturity, the undersurface sparsely hairy when young. Flower stalks and hypanthia glabrous or sparsely hairy. Calyces more or less persistent at fruiting, the sepals 3–5 mm long, triangular to narrowly triangular, the outer surface glabrous or very sparsely hairy, the inner surface densely woolly. Petals 1.5–2.5 cm long, the body ovate to oblong-ovate, short-tapered to a noticeable stalklike base, pink or pinkish-tinged at flowering, often fading to white. Anthers pink to orangish red. Styles 5, the stigmas narrowly club-shaped. Fruits 2.5–3.5 cm long, green to yellowish green, often somewhat glaucous. 2n=34, 68. April–May.

Uncommon in the Mississippi Lowlands Division north to Cape Girardeau County (eastern [mostly southeastern] U.S. west to Mississippi and Texas). Bottomland forests, banks of spring branches, edges of mesic upland forests, savannas, and sand prairies; also railroads and roadsides.

Malus angustifolia is closely related to and perhaps not distinct from M. coronaria and M. ioensis. For discussion of problems with the taxonomy of these species, see the discussion of M. coronaria.