Malus niedzwetzkyana

The tree is winter-hardy and drought-resistant, growing tall in the wild (<5 m under cultivation), with a globular crown and very dark purplish-brown bark. New shoots are dark purple, and leaves range from purplish when new to dark green when mature. In the spring it puts out intensely magenta-rose flowers. The skin of the fruit is deep red to purple-red (sometimes with a bluish, waxy bloom) and the flesh ranges from light to bright red, with dark reddish-brown seeds. The fruit is edible and not very tart, with dry, somewhat chewy flesh. In the Kashgar region of China near the Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan borders, it is known as 'kisil alma': 'red apple'. ==Taxonomy==

Some botanists consider it a distinct species, ==Distribution and habitat==

The species is native to certain parts of China, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. The tree was introduced to the West c. 1890 by Georg Dieck at the Zöschen Arboretum, Germany, who grew it from seed sent by the Russian lawyer and amateur botanist Vladislav E. Niedzwiecki living in exile in Turkestan; Dieck later donated specimens to the Späth nursery, which exported the tree to the US c. 1896. ==Conservation==

Niedzwetzky's apple is rare, often growing as an isolated tree, and is classified as endangered throughout its range in the IUCN Red List. Only a few hundred specimens of the tree are known to survive in Kyrgyzstan. The conservation group Fauna & Flora International is working to save and restore the species in that country, and has put M. niedzwetzkyana on its endangered list, brought it under its Global Trees Campaign, and planted over 1,000 saplings in area forests in 2010 and 2011. ==Cultivation==

Malus niedzwetzkyana has been used to breed some modern red-leaved, red-flowered, and red-fruited apples and crabapples. It is believed to be the ancestor of Surprise, a pink-fleshed apple that was brought to the United States by German immigrants around 1840 and was later used by the horticulturist Albert Etter to breed some 30 pink- and red-fleshed varieties, the best-known of which is Pink Pearl. ==See also==