One of the Four Varieties of Crabapple - Hall Crabapple

Hall crabapple is a small deciduous tree, up to 5 m tall, with a spreading crown; leaves ovate or elliptic to oblong-ovate; corymbose inflorescences with 4-6 flowers, pedicels slender and drooping, sparsely pubescent, purple; calyx tube hairless on the outside; sepals triangular-ovate, petals obovate, with a short claw at the base, pink, often more than 5 in number; fruit pear-shaped or obovate, slightly purple, ripening very late, sepals deciduous. Flowering period March-April, fruiting period September-October. It grows in mountain slopes in thickets or by mountain streams, at an altitude of 50-1200 m. It is distributed in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Shaanxi, Sichuan and Yunnan in China.

Hall Crabapple

Hall crabapple likes sunlight, is not shade-tolerant, nor very cold-tolerant, and loves a warm and humid environment, suitable for growing in sunny, sheltered places. It has low soil requirements and can grow in slightly acidic or slightly alkaline soil, but grows better in deep, loose, fertile, well-drained, slightly clayey soil. This flower is robust by nature and easy to cultivate, requiring no special technical management, except that it is not tolerant of waterlogging; potted plants must be protected from water accumulation to avoid root rot.

Hall Crabapple

After flowering, the fruit is sour-sweet and edible, and can be made into candied fruit. It can be used as medicine, mainly to treat metrorrhagia.

Hall Crabapple

The Ming Dynasty "Qunfangpu" records: There are four varieties of crabapple, all woody, and these four refer to: Midget Crabapple, Hall Crabapple, Chaenomeles cathayensis and Chaenomeles speciosa. Hall crabapple's soft vines greet the wind, its drooping blossoms graceful, like a fair lady with hair covering her face, full of tender affection, charming in posture. In the Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli wrote in a poem: "The drooping silk has a scenery of its own, who says it is entirely inferior to the Sichuan crabapple. The wind stirs the red world of the Jade Emperor, the sun bakes the Purple Emperor's purple garments. Lazy and without strength, still drunk in spring, waking from sleep with spirit, about to do morning makeup. I present this to the old man as a new verse, see if the peach and apricot dare to bear it." It describes the bewitchingly beautiful Hall crabapple, whose bright red petals stir the blue sky and the heavenly realm into red, with flickering purple calyxes like purple robes, and soft drooping red flowers like a young woman who has drunk wine, her fair skin flushed, delicate and weak. Its beauty and bewitching charm surpass peach, plum and apricot.