On trees of ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Fuji’, and ‘Gala’ from which bees were excluded, flowers were hand-pollinated using pollen collected from crabapple (‘Ralph Shay’ or Malus floribunda), ‘Delicious’ and ...

As for the trees enjoying their peak blooms as March begins? The tracker tells us that Malus floribunda and Prunus "First Lady," trees found beyond the Japanese Garden, are in full flower.

But a trace of scab was found in Malus floribunda in 1997, and by 2003, the trees were defoliating, Beckerman said. "You can actually see the pathogen evolving by looking at the data over time ...

Many American ornamental crabapples have Chinese crabapple (Malus floribunda) in their history. Modern edible apples are thought to be derived from ancient crabapple varieties.