Glossary · Fruit
Malus sieversii
Latin. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Definition
The wild apple of the Tien Shan mountains of central Asia, established by genetic evidence as the principal ancestor of the domesticated apple.
- Subject
- Fruit
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In more detail
Genomic work has shown that the cultivated apple descends chiefly from Malus sieversii, with a substantial later contribution from the European crab Malus sylvestris acquired as the fruit moved west along trade routes. The older textbook account of a purely European origin does not survive that evidence.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Malus domestica
The cultivated apple, the species to which all cider apple cultivars belong. It is a hybrid complex rather than a clean wild species, which is why its botanical name has repeatedly been revised.
Fruit
Crab apple
A small, hard, very acidic and often astringent apple, whether a wild species or a small-fruited cultivar. Crabs are used as orchard pollinators, occasionally as a source of acid and tannin, and traditionally for verjuice.
Fruit
Cultivar
A named clone propagated by grafting, so that every tree of it is genetically identical to the original seedling. "Variety" is used interchangeably in trade, though it has a stricter botanical meaning.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
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Sources
What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.
GRIN-Global germplasm database — Malus and Pyrus
United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE)
INRAE · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
French national agricultural research. Its Angers programme produced much of the published work on apple procyanidin chain length and on the relationship between polymer size, bitterness and astringency.