fusca – brown or dark in Latin

Native range: West Coast of North America

Leaves:

• alternate
• deciduous
• lance- to -egg-shaped
• <10 cm long
• pointed at the end, toothed, occasionally with a lobe on one or both margins with irregular lobes (“mitten thumb”)
• turn red or yellow-orange in autumn

Flowers:

• white to pink
• showy
• fragrant apple blossoms
• ~2 cm across
• 5–12” flat-topped clusters on spur-shoots
• 5 lobes lanceolate, recurved, 5 mm long

Fruit:

• 3-chambered
• fleshy
• obovoid
• 10–16 mm long
• green becoming yellow or purplish-red
• small
• edible but a bit tart

Other characteristics:

• several-stemmed shrub to small tree, 3–12 m. tall
• young twigs covered with fine, short down, or minutely pubescent

Relevant info:

• though tart, the fruits are an important food for most coastal indigenous peoples
  • eaten fresh or stored underwater, or in a mix of oil and water
  • the acidity of the fruit is its own preservative
  • fruits become sweeter with time
• morphologically and phylogenetically closer to Asian species of apple than to eastern North American ones
• in Oregon and Washington, wild crabapple hybridizes with the cultivated apple, M. pumila froming M. x dawsoniana
• also known as Pyrus fusca, which refers to pears
  • perhaps fusca refers to “dark pear” and is less of a distinction when applied to apples

Ecology & Adaptations:

• native from Alaska south to California
• in Washington, mainly west of the Cascade crest
• found in moist woods, swamps, open canyons, edges of standing and flowing water, bogs, open Sitka spruce forests, forest edges and clearing, brackish marshes, upper beaches, often fringing estuaries & sea cliffs
• sea level to moderate elevations in the mountains (0–600 m.)
• pollinated by bees attracted to nectar and pollen
• seed dispersal – birds and other animals eat fruit and disperse seeds
• herbivore defense:
  • bark contains cyanide-producing compounds that can cause cardiac arrest or paralysis in animals
  • cyanogenic compounds also defend against bacterial and fungal pathogens by interfering with cellular respiration
  • branches armed with sharp spur shoots
• tolerant of occasional exposure to salt water probably by:
  • accumulating osmoticants (small molecules) to stimulate higher internal salt concentrations and prevent diffusion of salt ions
  • limiting water loss so that cellular salt concentrations don’t increase
  • found at highest elevations in brackish marshes