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Oregon apple, squaw apple, wild crab apple

apple, peraphyllum, squaw apple, wild crabapple

Habit Shrubs, to 20 dm.
Stems

1–50, ascending, forming clumps, much branched;

bark gray, smooth; long and short shoots present; unarmed; slightly hairy.

Leaves

crowded toward tips of short shoots;

stipules minute;

blade 4–12 mm wide.

deciduous, cauline, simple;

stipules soon deciduous, adnate to petiole and base of blade, triangular, margins entire or serrulate;

petiole short or absent;

blade elliptic to oblanceolate or linear, 1–6 cm, coriaceous, margins flat, entire or serrulate, venation pinnate, camptodromous, apex with deciduous gland, surfaces sparsely pubescent.

Inflorescences

terminal usually on short shoots, 1–3-flowered, cymose, sparsely to moderately hairy;

bracts absent;

bracteoles absent.

Pedicels

1–2 cm.

present.

Flowers

sepals 2.5–5 mm, adaxially pubescent;

petals 4–8 mm.

developing after leaves, perianth and androecium epigynous, 10–20 mm diam.;

hypanthium funnel-shaped, 2–4 mm diam., glabrous;

sepals 5, ascending to spreading, triangular;

petals 5, white or pinkish, obovate to orbiculate, base clawed;

stamens 15–20, shorter than petals;

carpels 2 or 3, connate, adnate to hypanthium, appearing 4–6-loculed by false partitions, styles 2 or 3, terminal, connate;

ovules 2.

Fruits

berrylike pomes, yellow-orange, globose to ellipsoid, 8–18 mm, glabrous;

bitter tasting;

hypanthium persistent;

sepals persistent, erect to recurved;

carpels cartilaginous;

styles persistent.

Seeds

1–6.

x

= 17.

2n

= 34.

Peraphyllum ramosissimum

Peraphyllum

Phenology Flowering spring; fruiting summer.
Habitat Dry hillsides, mostly in full sun, pinyon pine-juniper, ponderosa pine, oak-sagebrush, and other communities
Elevation 500–3000 m (1600–9800 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; CO; ID; NM; NV; OR; UT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
w United States
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Peraphyllum ramosissimum is distinctive for its narrow leaves, small flowers, and yellow-orange pomes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 1.

Peraphyllum shares with Amelanchier and Malacomeles the feature of false partitions within the carpels that partially divide the locules and make the fruit appear to have twice as many locules as the number of carpels (G. N. Jones 1945; K. R. Robertson et al. 1991; J. R. Rohrer et al. 1991). Sequences from multiple chloroplast and nuclear genes indicate that Amelanchier and Peraphyllum are sister taxa (C. S. Campbell et al. 2007).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 9, p. 662. FNA vol. 9, p. 662. Author: Christopher S. Campbell.
Parent taxa Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Maleae > Peraphyllum Rosaceae > subfam. Amygdaloideae > tribe Maleae
Subordinate taxa
P. ramosissimum
Name authority Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 474. (1840) Nuttall: in J. Torrey and A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 474. (1840)
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