# American Crabapple (Malus coronaria)

> Fragrant pink-white blossoms in May and hard green fruit that makes exceptional jelly.

Also called sweet crabapple, wild crab. Category: Nut & Fruit Trees. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/american-crabapple/

![American crabapple (Malus coronaria) blossom, white petals and pink buds, in spring](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/american-crabapple-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Cbaile19, CC0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malus_coronaria,_Seldom_Seen,_2021-04-18,_04.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Small tree
- Mature height: 15 to 30 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 4 to 8
- Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes, old fields and edges
- Native range: 21 states and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC), north to [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI), south to [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA) and west to [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS) ([Alabama](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AL), [Arkansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=AR), [Delaware](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DE), [Georgia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=GA), [Illinois](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IL), [Indiana](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=IN), [Kansas](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KS), [Kentucky](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=KY), [Maryland](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MD), [Michigan](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MI), [Missouri](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=MO), [New Jersey](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NJ), [New York](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NY), [North Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=NC), [Ohio](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=OH), [Pennsylvania](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=PA), [South Carolina](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=SC), [Tennessee](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=TN), [Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=VA), [West Virginia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WV), [Wisconsin](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WI) and [the District of Columbia](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=DC)). Also recorded, not native, in [Wyoming](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/native/index.html.md?state=WY)
- Sun: Full
- Soil moisture: Average
- Growth rate: Slow
- Flowers: May
- Fruit: Crabapples, August to December
- First crop: Several years
- Mature spread: 30 ft
- Traits: Showy flowers, Wildlife value, Edible
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

## Availability

Saplings ship [bare-root](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/planting-bare-root-trees-on-arrival/index.html.md), [usually 12 to 18 inches tall](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-sapling-or-big-transplant/index.html.md), in the dormant season, and their [height and age](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/reading-a-nursery-listing/index.html.md) are stated with the price, once available. Live plants ship February to May and October to November. Not priced yet: leave an email on the web page for one email when it is priced, with a code for 10% off the plants in that order, not shipping or tax, or write to captain@bluewhaletrees.com.

In bundles: Bird & Berry Hedgerow.

## Notes

Sweet crabapple is the native crab of the Northeast and Midwest, a small thorny tree of old fields and woodland edges. Its bloom is later and more fragrant than the Asian crabs, and the sour fruit hangs into winter for deer and grouse. Seed-grown trees are variable and full of character. Ideal for a hedgerow or a sunny meadow edge, with fruit enough for jelly.

## Size, growth and what to expect

American crabapple grows slowly, about a foot a year in youth by our growth estimator's model. It makes a short-trunked tree 15 to 30 feet tall and about as wide, with a broad, spreading head and thorny branches. Fragrant white to pink blossoms an inch to an inch and three quarters across open in May.

The hard, waxy, yellow-green fruit runs three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half across, ripens from August into October, and tastes sour. Apples as a group give a good crop every 2 to 4 years. Birds, raccoons, rabbits, opossums, squirrels and foxes eat the fruit, and crabapple thickets give nesting birds shelter. It is also known as sweet crab.

It grows wild from central New York and southern Wisconsin south to Delaware, the North Carolina uplands, Georgia, Tennessee and northeastern Arkansas, along stream banks and woodland edges.

## How to grow American Crabapple

American crabapple needs full sun and an ordinary soil that drains. It grows a spreading, thorny crown, so give it 20 feet from other trees and keep it away from walkways.

Set out dormant bare-root saplings from late fall to early spring. Dig a hole twice the width of the roots, no deeper, so that the root flare sits right at grade. Backfill with the soil you removed, water it in, and mulch a ring three feet across, pulled back from the trunk. Sow crabapple seed in the fall half an inch deep in a screened bed, since it needs winter cold to sprout and mice clean out an open bed.

Water weekly through the first summer and in dry spells for two more years. Voles and rabbits strip apple bark, and deer rub and browse young trees, so use a hardware cloth cylinder from the start and leave it on for three or four years.

Sweet crabapple is very susceptible to cedar-apple rust, so plant it well away from eastern red cedar. Seedlings bloom and bear after several years, and fruit set improves with a second crabapple or apple nearby.

## Sources

- [NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox: Malus coronaria](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/malus-coronaria/)
- [Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center: Malus coronaria](https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=maco5)
- [USDA Forest Service, Woody Plant Seed Manual: Malus chapter](https://www.fs.usda.gov/nsl/Wpsm/Malus.pdf)
- [Boone County Arboretum: Sweet Crabapple, Malus coronaria](https://bcarboretum.org/plants/genus/Malus/species/coronaria)
- [Clemson Cooperative Extension, Home and Garden Information Center: Crabapple](https://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheet/crabapple/)
- [Illinois Wildflowers: Wild Crab Apple, Malus coronaria](https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/trees/plants/wild_crab.htm)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online: Malus coronaria](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/malus/malus-coronaria/)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 9: Malus coronaria](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416818)
- [NatureServe Explorer: Malus coronaria](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.960097/Malus_coronaria)
- [USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: Malus coronaria, MACO5: profile](https://plants.usda.gov/plant-profile/MACO5)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [Small native trees and large shrubs for a small yard, and how to place them](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/small-native-trees-for-small-yards/index.html.md)
- [Native trees and shrubs for birds: caterpillars, fruit, mast, nests and winter cover, month by month](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/native-trees-for-birds/index.html.md)
- [Multistem or single stem? Sometimes the trunk is hiding the answer](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/multistem-or-single-stem/index.html.md)

## Related

- Other crabapples (Malus) we grow: [Prairie Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/prairie-crabapple/index.html.md), [Southern Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/southern-crabapple/index.html.md)
- Plants that share its sun and soil: [Pear Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pear-hawthorn/index.html.md), [Devil's Walking Stick](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/devils-walking-stick/index.html.md), [Littlehip Hawthorn](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/littlehip-hawthorn/index.html.md) and [Eastern Redbud](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/eastern-redbud/index.html.md)
- Same size, similar character: [Southern Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/southern-crabapple/index.html.md), [Prairie Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/prairie-crabapple/index.html.md), [Hortulan Plum](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/hortulan-plum/index.html.md) and [Pawpaw](https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/pawpaw/index.html.md)
- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on American Crabapple, add ?species=american-crabapple with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address; for example, the verdict for zone 4, part sun and average soil as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple&zone=4&sun=part&moisture=average
- [Companion species for American Crabapple](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Transplant planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/transplant/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple): whether American Crabapple can be moved and what the move takes, the root ball, its weight, who can move it and the months, as Markdown at that address (add caliper= or height=, month= 1 to 12 and soil= sandy, loam or clay)
- [Tree growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate for American Crabapple as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple (add height=, years= and site= poor, average or good)
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how American Crabapple is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan for it as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple (add state= and zone= for your own frost dates, method=fridge for the refrigerator route)
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what American Crabapple needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the verdict for 2 of them as Markdown is at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md?plants=american-crabapple:2
- [Planting-window tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md): when to plant American Crabapple where you live, as a fall and a spring window from the local frost dates; the windows as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/planting-window/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple&state=MO&zone=6 with your own state and zone in place of those
- [Planting-distance tool](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md): how far American Crabapple goes from a house, a septic field, a walk, wires, a property line and the next tree; the distances as Markdown are at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/distance/index.html.md?species=american-crabapple&near=house,septic,pavement,wires,boundary,tree
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months American Crabapple flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species; its own row and the gaps of a planting with it as Markdown at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md?plants=american-crabapple