Malus sieversii

Asian wild apple (Malus sieversii ), fruit

The Asian wild apple (Malus sieversii ) is a kind of deciduous tree from the kind of apples (Malus ) in the rose family ( Rosaceae ).

Description

The Asian wild apple is a tree that reaches a height of about 5 to 12 meters. In habit it is the cultivated apple (Malus domestica) quite similar. Its fruits are the largest of all wild apple species; they are up to 7 cm in size.

Dissemination

The home of Asiatic wild apple is located in Central Asia; the distribution area extends from southern Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Systematics, stem form of cultural apple

The Asian wild apple was first described in 1833 by the German scientist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour under the name Pyrus sieversii who discovered in the Altai Mountains.

For a long time it was assumed that the cultivated apple (Malus domestica) as a - perhaps incidental - hybrids of two or more natural species of the genus Malus had arisen. Recent DNA analysis by Barrie Juniper of the plant science department at the University of Oxford and others, however, showed that this assumption is probably incorrect. Based on DNA analyzes were leaves samples of copies of the Asian wild apple, which were collected on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in the border area between Northwest China and Kazakhstan.

Since the samples several gene sequences with the cultivated apple (Malus domestica) had in common, one is now believed that the cultivated apple directly from the Asian wild apple - possibly with cross-breeding of the Caucasus apple (Malus orientalis) is derived.

Others

The species is recently, including on the U.S. Agricultural Research Service, cultivated; one hopes genetic material and valuable insights for the variety breeding of apple culture of winning. Some cultivated under scientific observation specimens show surprisingly high disease resistance.

In Kazakhstan, ie the apple alma; in the region with the potentially oldest occurrence of the species is also the city of Alma- Ata, whose name means " father of apples' means.

The Kazakh Pomologe Aymak Djangaliev (* 1913 † 21 June 2009) has devoted his entire life to the study and conservation of this species; He studied in Moscow and a PhD on just this kind he could demonstrate his scientific and historical studies indicate that the great- apple had a combination of genes that was lost during the domestication and the journey from Asia to Europe. In addition Djangaliev also dealt with the opportunities arising from his discovery.