Wild Apple
Malus sieversii
A spreading tree to around 10 m with white blossom flushed pink in spring and rounded fruit 4–7 cm across, ripening yellow-green with a red flush. This is the Central Asian species behind the orchard apple, and seedling trees vary widely from one to the next: fruit runs from sharply sour to genuinely sweet. Eaten raw, cooked or pressed for juice.
A tree of the wild fruit forests of the Tian Shan in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and north-west China, on mountain slopes and valley floors. Not native to Britain or Ireland, where apple trees in hedgerows, on waysides and on old orchard ground are feral Malus domestica, its hybrids with native crab apple, or crab apple itself.
The flesh is edible raw and cooked. Pips contain amygdalin, which releases cyanide when they are chewed; the odd swallowed pip is of no consequence, but do not crush and eat seed in quantity. Sour fruit eaten raw in bulk can upset the stomach. Roadside trees take up traffic pollution, and fruit on a planted or orchard tree belongs to the landowner — the wild plant exemption does not cover it.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Fruit
Rounded to slightly flattened, 4–7 cm across, yellow-green with a red flush on the sun side and a sunken eye at the base. Size alone separates it at arm's length from the marble-sized fruit of crab apple.
Cut fruit
Cut across the middle, the core shows five leathery carpels in a star, each holding one or two smooth brown pips. Hawthorn and rowan fruit have hard stony seeds or a single stone instead.
Leaves
Oval, pointed, finely toothed and carried on a clear leaf stalk, dull green above and softly downy beneath, especially on young growth. Pear leaves are glossier and near-hairless.
Twigs and habit
An open, spreading crown on a short trunk, with fruit borne on stubby spur shoots. Feral apples are typically thornless; persistent sharp spines on the shoots point to crab apple or to a hybrid with it.
Updated 2026-08-07T21:05:47.660Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Fruit