Apples
Malus domestica
A small spreading tree with grey scaly bark and clusters of white, pink-flushed blossom in spring. The fruit is a pome: firm flesh around five papery seed chambers, with the dried sepals still ringing the end opposite the stalk. Thousands of named cultivars exist; they differ in sugar, acid and tannin rather than in anything botanical, and this record covers the species as a whole.
Planted in orchards, gardens, allotments and churchyards, and widely naturalised from discarded cores along railway embankments, road verges, hedgerows and waste ground throughout Britain and Ireland. Tolerant of most soils, but fruits best in open sun.
The flesh is safe raw. The pips contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when they are chewed in quantity; a few swallowed whole are not a concern. Avoid fruit from busy roadsides and recently sprayed orchards, and discard windfalls showing brown rot. Trees in gardens and commercial orchards belong to someone, so ask before picking.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Fruit
A pome, not a stone fruit: cut across it and there are five papery chambers holding brown pips, rather than a single hard stone. The dried sepals persist as a small crown at the end opposite the stalk, which plums and cherries never show.
Leaves
Oval to elliptical, finely toothed, dull mid-green above and covered in soft grey-white down beneath. Pear leaves are hairless and glossy on both sides and sit on noticeably longer stalks.
Blossom
Five-petalled, white and flushed deep pink in bud, opening in clusters on short spur shoots in April and May. Pear blossom is pure white with dark anthers and opens a week or two earlier.
Trunk and graft union
Bark is grey-brown and breaks into small scaly plates. Most planted trees carry a swollen, kinked graft union within a foot of the ground, marking a named cultivar on a rootstock; a seedling from a thrown core has a straight, unmarked base.
Updated 2026-08-07T20:57:47.949Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit