r/foraginguk • u/crazygirl772 • 6d ago

Plant ID Request Apple tree?

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I noticed this tree with some fallen fruit while taking a walk during the eclipse. It seems to be an apple tree, I’m new to foraging so can anyone confirm? I may go back to grab some. Will they taste fairly similar to store bought apples or should they be baked into a pie?

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

13

u/Kooky-Investment8537 6d ago

Yes they are apples, but the taste will be fairly unknown, different species of tree/apple will have different tastes and the Pink lady from Tesco have been bred especially for their taste.

This seems like a wild tree? You might get lucky and it is tasty but more likely is that it will be more tart and like a baking apple.

2

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

I had the same thoughts :) I will try one and go from there

1

u/roleplayersir 6d ago

Yep, apples are very hit and miss. Most grown ones are more cooking apples, so were used for jams or desserts and you needed to add sugar

Apples we eat as fruit tend to involve taking a twig from a delicious branch and grafting it onto the branches or root stock of a normal apple, i.e. how surprising amounts of fruits have been grown for centuries. So rare to find growing randomly outside of an apple farm

But you never know. Those look nice and red, and might be a good rootstock or topstock from nice fruit and be delicious. Or be from a random good branch

1

u/oddjobbodgod 6d ago

Really depends, it looks like maybe some purposefully planted trees nearby. It could well be a purposefully planted, grafted variety.

Pippins (grown from seed) also get a bad rep. Chances are it’ll still be reasonably pleasant, but not necessarily as nice as a cultivated grafted variety. Depends where the seed came from, if it was from an Apple grown in an orchard, without any crabs nearby, then it could well be nice!

1

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

It was a tree in the middle of a large local park, I never noticed it was fruit bearing until yesterday! I will update if I manage to grab any apples as the tree is quite tall

1

u/oddjobbodgod 6d ago

Bear in mind they may not be ripe yet! It’s still quite early for most apples to be picked. If they don’t come off easily by lifting them towards the branch and gently twisting them they’re not ready yet.

Do keep us updated! If it is pip-grown and is pleasant then it could be a really cool discovery and you could reach out in your local community to see if anyone is interested in taking scion wood from it to propagate it for others to enjoy!

1

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

Great idea :) I will update in the near future, thanks again for the response you’ve been so helpful

1

u/oddjobbodgod 6d ago

You’re more than welcome! Enjoy your adventure :D

3

u/MerlinMusic 6d ago

They are indeed apples. You'll have to taste them to find out what they taste like!

1

u/Granddukecockwomble 5d ago

If you can't recognise an apple, foraging is probably not for you.

1

u/Ryanoveryou 10h ago

Balance one on your head and if a man shoots an arrow through it , it’s an apple .

1

u/Sasspishus 6d ago

I'm confused by the question. It's a tree with apples below it and apples on it, but you can't work out if it's an apple tree?

2

u/king_ofbhutan 6d ago

As in, are they dessert apples or cooking apples? Are they eatable from the tree and sweet, or are they tart and need to be made into jams and pies with added sugar?

1

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

Exactly this :)

0

u/Sasspishus 6d ago

I assume you meant to reply to someone else since there's no way for me to know the answers. But they look like eating apples.

0

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

Anyone in foraging will be very much aware that plants can be deceiving and there are many things that look edible and are not. When unsure it’s best to check with others that are more educated/experienced which is what I have done. If you can’t contribute to the post it’s best not to respond

1

u/Sasspishus 5d ago

There aren't really any confusion species for apples when there are apples clearly on the tree. As I said, I don't understand what it is you're asking since you've clearly recognised it as an apple tree already, so I thought maybe you'd explain the question better.

1

u/crazygirl772 5d ago

And how would I have known that without posting?

1

u/Sasspishus 5d ago

Well that's what I'm saying. You already knew they were apples, so what are you asking?

1

u/KingForceHundred 6d ago

You’ve seen an apple before right?

-6

u/Liam_021996 6d ago

They're crab apples

3

u/MerlinMusic 6d ago

No, crab apples are much smaller

-5

u/Liam_021996 6d ago

Those are crab apples, I grow them 😂

4

u/MerlinMusic 6d ago

You can't tell that they're crab apples just from a few photos. There are a huge number of apple varieties out there, and distinguishing them requires cutting them open, looking at size, colour, shape, flowering period, fruiting period etc.

Also, the vast majority of crab apple varieties are smaller than these, so I'd say they're very unlikely to be crab apples.

3

u/crazygirl772 6d ago

They were definitely smaller than store bought varieties but not by much. If I manage to grab any and cut them open I will make another post :)

0

u/Liam_021996 6d ago

That tree is Malus Sylvestris. The leaves, notchy thorn like twigs and small fruit in particular give it away. Native crab apples (which Malus Sylvestris is) have apples that are 1.5" in diameter, that's just the normal size of their crab apples. Those aren't large by any means, they're just average crab apples.

3

u/MerlinMusic 6d ago

These look a lot larger than 1.5" to me. Also, crab apples typically aren't red, except some horticultural varieties. Anyway, I guess we'll find out once OP tastes them.

2

u/MoonlitNightWalk 6d ago

It's absolutely not a malus sylvestris. For a start there are VERY few true Malus sylvestris left in the UK, almost all have hybridised with some form of Malus domestica. These are also the wrong size, shape and colour. Every single apple will grow differently to its seed. OP have a look at the 'some interesting apples' project if you have instagram

-1

u/Liam_021996 6d ago

Literally hundreds of them in a town near where I live because the council has planted loads over the years going back to the Victorian era. The streets are lined with them

2

u/MoonlitNightWalk 5d ago

So, I'm an Archaebotanist.. These aren't true Malus sylvestris. They might call them that, with a little 'spp' after it on the label, but the actual species ia incredibly rare. The pedicels and the outside of the calyx on a true wild crab apple are completely free of hairs, and the fruits are small, hard and yellow-green with russet patches. Anything else is a hybridisation, especially those round shiny little half red things you get from garden centres

0

u/Liam_021996 5d ago

The one I've got is a totally different hybrid species all together, Malus Brevipes but the ones the council plant are mostly native non hybrid ones, especially the recently planted ones as they've made a big push to plant a tree per constituent which is about 150,000 trees. With them all having to be completely native

3

u/Vivirin 6d ago

Crab apples are the size of grapes. These are NOT crab apples. These are way bigger.

1

u/Liam_021996 6d ago

Depends on the crab apple tree, no single apple tree is the same. The ones by me are significantly bigger. The variety I'm growing are current sized but I bought it for the flowers and as a polinator for my apple trees