Hall's crabapple is a small Chinese flowering tree whose pink, often blossoms dangle on long, slender purple stalks. In the US it's an ornamental planted for its spring flowers, hardy in USDA zones 4–8.
Appearance
- Growth form
- A small tree about 13–26 ft (4–8 m) tall, often with several trunks and a spreading shape.
- Leaves
- Dark green, oval leaves 1.5–3 in (3.5–8 cm) long, often tinged purple; they can turn reddish in fall.
- Flowers
- Fragrant shell-pink to rose flowers about 1.2–2 in (3–5 cm) across, in clusters of 4–6 hanging on slender purple stalks.
- Flowering time
- March to May in North Carolina, depending on the year.
- Fruit
- Tiny pear-shaped fruits about 0.25–0.3 in (6–8 mm) across ripen dark red to purple in September–October and may hang on into winter. Fruit set is often sparse.
Look-alikes
Japanese flowering crabappleMalus × floribunda
Japanese flowering crabapple has deep carmine buds that open pale pink and fade to white, and it grows into a larger, wide-spreading tree. Hall's crabapple has pink, often semi-double flowers on a smaller tree.
Why they get mixed upBoth are pink-flowered ornamental crabapples blooming in spring.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- Gardens
- Parks
- Arboretums
- Range
- Native to central and southern China, where it grows in thickets on slopes and along streams. In the US it is found only in cultivation, mostly as the cultivar 'Parkmanii'; other plants of this species are rare in North American collections.
- Preferred conditions
- Full sun and moist, well-drained soil; it tolerates a range of soil types and pH.
- Flowering
Flowers Mar–May
Flowers Mar–May
Growing it
- Care
- Low maintenance; prune only to remove dead wood or improve airflow. It can get apple scab, cedar-apple rust, powdery mildew, and fire blight, and deer may browse it.
- Toxicity
- The seeds, leaves, and stems contain cyanide-forming compounds, and the plant is listed as toxic to cats and dogs.
Name and classification
- About the name
- Named for George Rogers Hall, who lived in Japan from 1855 to 1861 and sent the first plants to the US. It has long been grown in China and Japan, so it is unclear how many Chinese populations are truly wild.
- Varieties and forms
- 'Parkmanii': the classic semi-double form from Hall's original plants, with about 15 shell-pink petals; named for historian Francis Parkman.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- DDData DeficientNot enough data yet to assess
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