Malus sieversii

Malus sieversii, commonly known as the wild apple of Central Asia or Sievers' apple, is a small deciduous tree in the family Rosaceae native to the mountainous forests of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Xinjiang, where it is recognised as the principal wild ancestor of the cultivated apple Malus domestica. Trees typically reach 5 to 12 metres tall with a spreading rounded crown, a short trunk often forked from the base, and grey-brown bark that flakes in small plates on older specimens. The branches may bear short, stiff thorn-like spurs. Leaves are alternate, simple, ovate to broadly elliptic, 5 to 10 centimetres long, with serrate margins, dull green above and softly hairy beneath, on petioles 2 to 4 centimetres long. Flowers are produced in axillary umbel-like corymbs of four to seven on short spur shoots, each 3 to 5 centimetres across with five white to pale pink petals and many yellow stamens. The fruit is a globose pome 3 to 7 centimetres in diameter, highly variable in colour from yellow-green to deep red and in flavour from astringent to sweet.