Malus pumila

The apple is in the rose or Rosaceae family and its wild ancestors are from the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang, China.

All orchard apples are descendants of one species, M. pumila (synonym M. domestica), which has been propagated to yield over 7,500 known cultivars of apples throughout the world.

• Leaves are alternate, simple, elliptical to ovate, 3–7 cm long, pinnately veined, sparsely toothed, sometimes borne on shoots 3–8 cm long.
• Flowers are white to red in colour, 5 petals, appearing in spring.
• Fruit is a pome, of various sizes and colours, depending on the cultivar, turning from yellow to red in the fall.
• Twigs are of moderate thickness with generally many spur shoots, buds plump ovate. Bark is smooth when young and later scaly.