[MAIPC] Crab Apples Native Vx. Invasive

[Greenberg, Patricia]

Hi,
Thanks, Nathan for the feedback. That is interesting to know about Doug Tallamy’s finding. So, if its not as invasive as other tree species like callery pear, are others here in agreement that it can be ignored for the most part? Has anyone found it to take over areas? I’ve only found it here and there and not dominating areas like callery pears tend to. Or is this an “it depends” conversation?

Thank you,

Patricia Pearl Greenberg
Ecologist II
Invasive Management Area Program Manager
Natural Resource Branch
Fairfax County Park Authority
Office: 703-324-8673
Fax: 703-324-3996
patricia.greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov<mailto:patricia.greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov>
(She/Her)

ISA Certified Arborist, MA-6067A
ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified





From: Nathan Hartshorne <nshartshorne at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, December 1, 2021 1:39 PM
To: Greenberg, Patricia <Patricia.Greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov>
Cc: MAIPC <maipc at lists.maipc.org>
Subject: Re: [MAIPC] Crab Apples Native Vx. Invasive

I've struggled with this as well and spent awhile trying to get it right and never got anywhere.  If I recall correctly, they hybridize, so it's a real spectrum that's hard to diagnose, and that one feature you mentioned didn't do much for me. It doesn't help that at least some native nurseries don't even seem to realize this is a thing and it's just "malus spp."  On the bright side, according to Tallamy, they are interchangeable as a host plant for caterpillars, at least in species numbers, if not volume of insects.

On Wed, Dec 1, 2021 at 12:47 PM Greenberg, Patricia <Patricia.Greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov<mailto:Patricia.Greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov>> wrote:

Hi,



Can anyone on this email group help respond to these questions:

How do we best distinguish the American native crabapples from Asian ones? According to Flora of Virginia, it looks like a main character is thorn-like branches coming off of the American ones. Is there a better “clincher” that you know of?

Thank you,

Patricia Pearl Greenberg
Ecologist II
Invasive Management Area Program Manager
Natural Resource Branch
Fairfax County Park Authority
Office: 703-324-8673
Fax: 703-324-3996
patricia.greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov<mailto:patricia.greenberg at fairfaxcounty.gov>
(She/Her)

ISA Certified Arborist, MA-6067A
ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualified





_______________________________________________
MAIPC mailing list
MAIPC at lists.maipc.org<mailto:MAIPC at lists.maipc.org>
http://lists.maipc.org/listinfo.cgi/maipc-maipc.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.maipc.org/pipermail/maipc-maipc.org/attachments/20211202/9b03b3ba/attachment-0001.html>