Cutleaf Crab Apple

Shrubs or small trees, 3–6 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown or dark brown when old, terete, puberulous when young, glabrous when old; buds purplish brown, ovoid, pubescent, apex acute. Stipules lanceolate, 4–6 mm, sparsely pubescent, margin entire, apex acuminate; petiole 1–3 cm, puberulous; leaf blade variable in shape, ovate or narrowly elliptic, 3–8 × ca. 1.5 cm, abaxially densely pubescent along midvein and lateral veins, adaxially sparsely pubescent, base broadly cuneate or subcordate, margin obtusely serrate, often 3–5 parted, sometimes undivided, apex acute. Corymb umbel-like, 3–5 cm in diam., 3–5-flowered; bracts caducous, linear, membranous, adaxially pubescent when young, margin sparsely glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Pedicel 1.8–2.5 cm, sparsely villous. Flowers 2–2.5 cm in diam. Hypanthium tomentose abaxially. Sepals triangular-lanceolate or narrowly triangular, 3–4 mm, nearly as long as hypanthium, both surfaces white tomentose, margin entire, apex acuminate. Petals white, ovate or elliptic-obovate, 8–11 mm, adaxially sparsely pubescent or glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex rounded. Stamens ca. 20; filaments unequal, shorter than petals. Styles 3(or 4 or 5), not exceeding stamens, glabrous. Pome yellow, tinged red, obovoid or narrowly ellipsoid, 1–1.3 cm; sepals caducous; fruiting pedicel 3–4 cm, glabrous, Fl. Apr–May, fr. Sep. 2n = 34*, 51*, 68*.

SE Gansu, W Sichuan, SE Xizang.

Thickets on slopes; 2000--3000 m.

Malus transitoria C. K. Schneider var. toringoides Rehder in Sargent, Pl. Wilson. 2: 286. 1915; Pyrus toringoides (Rehder) Osborn; P. transitoria Batalin var. toringoides (Rehder) Bailey; Sinomalus toringoides (Rehder) Koidzumi.

Malus toringoides is a crabapple species in the family Rosaceae, with the common name cut-leaf crabapple.

The tree is endemic to mountain ranges of China, located within Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces.

Malus toringoides is a wild crabapple tree, and is sometimes used as a root stock in apple hybridizing. It is a naturally occurring hybrid species with multiple ploidy levels.