365 Urban Species. #120: Flowering Crabapple
Urban species #120: Flowering crabapple Malus x purpurea
Cherry blossoms get all the good press, but there are other flowering trees in the city. Hybrid varieties of apple have been developed to produce sprays of white or pink flowers that rival their close relatives, the cherries. Crabapples can be distinguished from cherries from their bark: cherries have smooth bark with horizontal dashes (technically called lenticels), while apple trees have rough, flaky bark. Apples and cherries both produce flowers in spring and (more famously) edible fruit in fall; fruit bearing trees such as these provide food for birds such as robins and cedar waxwings, and mammals like squirrels and raccoons.
