WILD CRAB APPLE; FRAGRANT CRAB (Mahis coronaria, Mill.). Shrub to 30 feet. Bushy, low tree with rigid branches and thorny, angular twigs. Bark brown, scaly. Wood red dish brown, heavy, fine-grained, weak, used for levers and the handles of tools; also fuel. Leaves ovate or triangular, 3 to 4 inches long, half as wide, blunt, sharply serrate, often lobed slightly near base, velvety underneath. Flowers like single roses, white to rose-pink, spicy fragrant, 1 to 2 inches across, after leaves open, May, in umbels, 5- to 6-flowered. Fruit a
small, flattened, yellow, hard-fleshed, sour apple, with piquant flavor. Dist.: Ontario to Minnesota; Atlantic States and along Alleghenies to South Carolina and Alabama and Texas; Nebraska southward. Ornamental, flowering tree. Apples made into jelly and preserves.