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 wild cherry?
Both carry white blossom in spring, in hedges and woods.
The quickest check
The quickest check is the trunk. Crab apple: purplish brown, in close scaly ridges. Wild cherry: purplish grey, peeling in level papery strips.
At a glance
| Look at | Crab apple | Wild cherry |
|---|---|---|
| Trunk | Purplish brown, in close scaly ridges | Purplish grey, peeling in level papery strips |
| Size of a grown leaf | Small and stiff, to 6 cm | Big, to 11 cm, with a long point |
Two ways to tell them apart
TrunkBark
Size of a grown leafLeaves
The two trees
Wild cherry
Prunus aviumWild cherry is a tall tree with shiny, reddish brown bark that peels in horizontal strips. In April it is covered in clusters of white flowers.
How to identify wild cherry →Their other lookalikes
Crab apple or pear?Quickest check: the flower colour, and when→
Crab apple or hawthorn?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf→
Crab apple or blackthorn?Quickest check: when it flowers→
Wild cherry or bird cherry?Quickest check: how the flowers are held→Wild cherry or blackthorn?Quickest check: how the flowers sit→
Wild cherry or cherry plum?Quickest check: how the flowers are held→
Wild cherry or downy birch?Quickest check: the colour of the trunk→
Wild cherry or ornamental cherry?Quickest check: the outline→
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), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Matthew Flood (CC BY 4.0), bobwardell (CC0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.