Crab apple

Value to bees

Nectar

High

Pollen

Very high

As a honey crop

Minor honey crop — a surplus only locally or occasionally

Which bees, and why

The classic mason bee tree. Osmia species pollinate apple several times more effectively than honey bees per individual, because they carry pollen dry on the abdomen and move between trees rather than working one methodically. A few hundred mason bees will pollinate an orchard acre as well as a full honey bee colony.

Open cup-shaped flowers with fully accessible nectar and pollen — usable by every bee, and by hoverflies and beetles besides.

Worth knowing

Excellent spring pollen and good nectar. Its particular value is the length of the flowering window relative to a cultivated apple.

Flowering

In flower

April to May (northern hemisphere)

Three to four weeks, and the range across cultivars is wide enough that a mixed planting flowers for six.

When nectar flows

Good nectar and abundant pollen. Apple flowers are among the most-studied pollination systems there are, and visitation quality translates directly into fruit shape and seed count.

Year-to-year variation

Very reliable in flower. Rarely a surplus honey crop, because the flow arrives when colonies are expanding fast.

What it does to the honey

Where an apple surplus is taken it is pale, delicate and faintly fruity with a marzipan note common to the rose family. Most of it is consumed by the colony as spring build-up.

Growing it

Conditions

Sun to light shade, most soils. Far more tolerant than a cultivated apple.

Size

4-10 m.

Native range

Europe for the wild species; ornamental crabs derive from species across Asia and North America.

Suits

Small gardens, Large gardens, Orchard, Hedgerow

• One of the best small trees for a garden on any grounds — blossom, forage, winter fruit for birds, and a size that fits.
• Plant one as a universal pollination partner for eating apples; its long flowering overlaps with almost every variety.
• Choose a single-flowered cultivar. Some ornamental crabs are semi-double and offer considerably less.
• Leave the fruit on the tree. Blackbirds, fieldfares and redwings strip it through the winter.

What it looks like

A small spreading tree, often thorny in the wild form, with white to deep pink blossom in spring and small hard fruit in yellow, orange or red persisting into winter.