Crab apple
Malus sylvestrisCrab apple grows into a small tree, sometimes spiny, with glossy oval leaves that are smooth underneath once grown. In autumn it carries small, hard, yellowish green apples.
How to identify crab apple →
Lookalikes
Crab apple or hawthorn?
Both are thorny trees of old hedges, in blossom at much the same time, with crab apple a little earlier.
The quickest check
The quickest check is the outline of a leaf. Crab apple: plain oval, small rounded teeth. Hawthorn: three to seven deep lobes, halfway in or more. No leaves on the tree? Check the fruit size.
At a glance
| Look at | Crab apple | Hawthorn |
|---|---|---|
| Outline of a leaf | Plain oval, small rounded teeth | Three to seven deep lobes, halfway in or more |
| Fruit size | Yellowish green apple, 2 to 3 cm across | Red haw, about 10 mm long |
| Cluster of flowers | Small clusters, each flower 3 to 4 cm across | Flat-topped heads of 10 to 18 small flowers |
Three ways to tell them apart
Outline of a leafLeaves
Fruit sizeApples
Cluster of flowersFlowers
The two trees
Hawthorn
Crataegus monogynaHawthorn is a dense, thorny shrub or small tree with little, deeply lobed leaves. It is white with blossom from early May and red with haws in autumn.
How to identify hawthorn →Their other lookalikes
Crab apple or pear?Quickest check: the flower colour, and when→
Crab apple or blackthorn?Quickest check: when it flowers→
Crab apple or wild cherry?Quickest check: the trunk→
Hawthorn or apple?Quickest check: the outline→Hawthorn or blackthorn?Quickest check: the flowers and leaves, and when→
Hawthorn or common whitebeam?Quickest check: the outline→
Hawthorn or field maple?Quickest check: the bare shoot→
Hawthorn or Midland hawthorn?Quickest check: the depth of the lobes→
Hawthorn or rowan?Quickest check: the whole leaf→
Hawthorn or pear?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf→
In the app
See them side by side in Treely
- Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
- Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
- A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
- The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them
Free to download.
Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.
Photographs: kh-c (CC0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), Daniel Cahen (CC BY 4.0), Henry Miller (CC BY 4.0), nicolahallows (CC0), cjoynson (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.