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Native American Apples
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11299 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1993 |
1,559 Words |
| Author
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Elizabeth Dickson
Elizabeth Dickson, a graduate student at Cornell University, is writing her Ph.D. thesis on apple systematics, focusing on the three eastern North American wild species. |
The familiar edible apples did not grow in North America before the arrival of European settlers. Old World apple trees became established in the New World from the trees and seeds that Dutch and English emigrants brought from Europe. As legend has it, Johnny Appleseed profoundly influenced the spread of apples in North America by sowing them everywhere he traveled, but he was just one of many pioneers who planted apple seeds in the new territories. The original cultivated apple trees also became established naturally through seeds dispersed by birds and mammals. [For more on Old World apple species, see "Old-Time Apples," THE WORLD & I, October 1989, p. 388]
Before foreign apples were introduced, wild species were growing throughout much of eastern and western North America. Although less familiar than grocery store apples, these native American species persist in the wild.
Plant taxonomists may argue over the number of apples native to North America, but most agree that there are four major species. Three eastern species are very similar to one another and are quite distinct from the single western species. Based on similarities in morphology, the western species is believed to be most closely related to apples native to China. In contrast, the three eastern species probably have affinities with apples from the Middle East and are thought to have split off early in the evolution of the genus Malus. Although their natural habitat is restricted to North America, several representatives of the American species are in botanical gardens throughout the world, attesting to international interest in New World apples.
The western apple
The western apple, Malus fusca, can be found growing near the Pacific in northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and southern Alaska. Commonly called the Oregon apple or Pacific crab apple, it is a small tree, rarely higher than 30 feet. Scraggly, dense thickets of 6- to 10-foot trees form in moist soils along streams and at the edges of bogs, swamps, and beaches. The western apple also grows in clusters in open foothills or canyons or scattered among other deciduous trees.
The oval leaves of the western apple are similar to those of the cultivated apple. Some young branches have leaves that are conspicuously three-lobed. Three-lobed leaves are also found in seedlings. The flowers of the western apple develop in flat-topped clusters on short spur branches of the previous year's growth. The
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