Tea or flowering tea crabapple

Pyrus hupehensis Pampanini, Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital., n. s. 17: 291. 1910 (as Pirus); Malus domestica Borkhausen var. hupehensis (Pampanini) Likhonos; M. theifera Rehder

Trees, to 80 dm. Stems to 30 cm diam.; bark dark gray or dark brown, smooth or rough; young branches dark green and puberulous, becoming purplish or purplish brown and glabrous at maturity; flowering shoots developing as spurs, 5–20(–40) mm. Buds dark purple, ovoid, 3–4(–5) mm, scale margins sparsely ciliate. Leaves convolute in bud; isomorphic; stipules deciduous, linear-lanceolate, 5–6 mm, apex acuminate; petiole 10–30 mm, sparsely pubescent when young, glabrescent; blade ovate or ovate-oblong, 5–10 × 2.4–4 cm, base broadly cuneate, rarely rounded, margins unlobed, sharply serrulate, apex acuminate, surfaces sparsely puberulent when young, becoming glabrous. Panicles umbel-like; peduncles absent; bracteoles rarely persistent, lanceolate, 2 mm. Pedicels 30–40 mm, glabrous or slightly villous. Flowers 35–40 mm diam.; hypanthium ˂constricted distal to ovaries˃, glabrous or sparsely villous; sepals triangular-ovate, 4–5 mm, equal to or shorter than tube, apex acute or acuminate, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial hairy; petals white, sometimes pink-white, obovate, 15 mm, claws 1 mm, margins crenulate, apex rounded; stamens 20, 6–8 mm, anthers white before dehiscence; styles 3(or 4), basally connate to 1/2 length, 7–9 mm, slightly longer than stamens, proximally tomentose. Pomes greenish yellow with red blush, ellipsoid or subglobose, 10 mm diam., cores enclosed at apex; sepals deciduous; sclereids sparse to moderate surrounding core. Seeds brown. 2n = 51, 68.

Flowering Apr–May; fruiting Aug–Sep. Slopes and valleys; 0–2900 m; introduced; Ill., Wash.; Asia; introduced also in Europe.

Malus hupehensis is possibly naturalized in Egypt.