Pacific Crab Apple
Halq’emeylem Name
Qwe’óp
Pronunciation
Latin Name
Malus fusca (Raf.) C.K. Schneid.
Pronunciation
About Pacific Crab Apple
In April 2023, we replanted this tree in the garden. The first tree died in the June 2021 heat dome.
“A small tree or multi-stemmed shrub that grows to 12 metres tall, armed with sharp thorn-like shoots and bearing showy white flowers from mid April to early June.
Leaves
“Alternate, deep-green, egg-shaped leaves grow up to 10 centimetres long. The edges are toothed along the irregular lobes.
Flowers
“White to pink, fragrant apple blossoms in a flat-topped cluster.
Fruit
“The yellow to purplish-red apples, 2 centimetres across, are tart but edible. After a frost, they turn brown and soft.
Where to find Pacific crab apple
“It is found on lakesides and streambanks along the coast, from sea level to mid elevations. Pacific crab apple grows on Vancouver Island but not on the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Habitat
“Pacific crab apple grows in moist, open woodlands. It presents a delightful spring sight when in bloom along the edges of river mouths and streambanks.
Uses
“The apples were an important fruit for all coastal people, who harvested them in the late summer and early fall and either ate them fresh or stored them under water. Because of their acidity, the apples did not require further preservation.
The deeply coloured wood is hard and somewhat flexible. Coastal people used it to make tool handles, bows, wedges, and digging sticks.” (BC Govenment)
Connections
Shakespeare
Malus fusca, wild crabapple, is in the garden because it is an Indigenous food source. The fairy character Puck is associated with a roasted crab apple (Dream). Malus fusca is in the rose family, so it could also be considered a kind of rose, inverting Juliet’s hopeful phrase in Romeo and Juliet, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” (2.2). She is saying the thing would be the same even if it had a different name (a claim that the play questions, since the two young people’s names indicate their membership in their families and are so important to the constraints and possibilities they live with). We are suggesting that this kind of plant can also be thought of as a rose, or at least rose-like.
Indigenous Knowledge
According to Nancy Turner, malus fusca was an important food source for many coastal first peoples. Many harvested the fruits when they were green and stored them for ripening by hanging them in bags made of plant fibre. Turner reports that “According to Sproat (1868), the Nuu-cha-hulth people were as careful of their Crabapple trees as Europeans were of their orchards. When European settlers began to encroach on aboriginal land, the Nuu-chah-nulth …cut down all the Wild Crabapple trees around the colonial settlements so that their last crop of fruit would at least be easy to harvest” (118).
Gallery
References
Sound: Halq’emeylem language pronunciation ? and see Stó:lō Shxwelí, Halq’méylem Language Program, https://stoloshxweli.org | Latin binomial nomenclature pronunciation by Alan Reid, https://stoloshxweli.org | Latin binomial nomenclature pronunciation by Alan Reid
Images: Whiteway | Jamie Holly | BOBDOGidaho | David Ohmer
Integrated Taxonomic Information System. (n.d.). Malus fusca (Raf.) C.K. Schneid.. Retrieved from https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=25258#null
Government of British Columbia. (n.d.). Pacific Crab Apple. Retrieved from https://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfd/library/documents/treebook/pacificcrabapple.htm
Turner, Nancy. Food Plants of Coastal First Peoples. Royal British Columbia Museum, 1995.