All plants /Tree /Southern Crabapple
Southern Crabapple
Malus angustifolia, rose family. Uncommon in East Texas.
At a glance
- What
- Small hard green-yellow apples
- How
- Cooked into jelly, butter, cider
- When
- Fall
- Where
- East Texas woods and old homesteads
- Value
- Pectin, vitamin C
Caution: Very sour and hard raw; always cooked. As with all apples, do not eat the seeds in quantity. Never eat a wild plant on this guide's word alone. Confirm identity against several sources and learn the look-alikes first.
Harvesting
Fragrant pink spring blossoms give way to golf-ball apples too tart to bite. Gather them for the pot, not the hand.
In the kitchen
Their sky-high pectin makes crabapples the secret weapon of jelly makers; they also cook into a fragrant apple butter.
Photo: Internet Archive Book Images, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons.
Forages well with
Forage safely. Never eat a wild plant on this site's word alone. Confirm identity with several sources, learn the look-alikes, and when in doubt, leave it in the ground.