Sargent Crabapple (Malus sargentii)

A deciduous tree from the Rose Family (Rosaceae)

Sargent Crabapple (also known as Sargent's Crabapple) is native to Japan, but widely planted as an ornamental Crabapple throughout the Eastern United States. It is known for its fragrant blossoms that are red in bud and white when fully opened, and for its small, bright red to dark red fruits, borne in copious amounts at least every other year (and which are loved by wildlife). It reaches 8 feet tall by 15 feet wide as an individual specimen, but is often planted in groups of three or more to accentuate its horizontal growth habit. As a member of the Rose Family, it is related to the Serviceberries, Chokeberries, Hawthorns, Plums, Cherries, Pears, and Roses, as well as other Crabapple and Apple species and hybrids.

Planting Requirements - Sargent Crabapple, like many members of the Rose Family, is very adaptable to a wide variety of environmental conditions, including soils that are rich, average, poor, or rocky, and of acidic, neutral, or alkaline pH. It likes moist, well-drained soils, tolerates drier soils, and is one of the few ornamental trees to have a horizontal but non-weeping growth habit. Sargent Crabapple grows in full sun to partial sun, and is found in zones 4 to 7.

Potential Problems- Sargent Crabapple, as a Rose Family member, is prone to a host of diseases and pests which primarily affect its foliage and fruits, but it is generally a healthy tree. Sargent Crabapple shows especially good resistance to Japanese Beetles. This tree is commonly grafted onto a different rootstock, and therefore has a multitude of suckers that arise in the root zone area, close to the graft union at the base of the trunk. These suckers grow rapidly and need to be pruned back at least once a year.

Leaf Identification Features

Leaves of Sargent Crabapple are alternate, ranging from ovate to elliptical, with fine serrations. Leaves consist of two types: those that are without any lobes, and those with three lobes.

Fall color is usually green to chartreuse and essentially unchanged before leaf drop. The growth habit of Sargent Crabapple is distinctly low-branched and horizontal, maturing to be twice as wide as tall.

Other Identification Features

Sargent Crabapple has flowers that are pink in bud and white in flower, being moderately fragrant. They clothe the nearly bare branches of this imported small tree in mid-spring, just as the vegetative buds are beginning to break with small green foliage.

Fruits that result from the perfect flowers are bronzed-green in summer and bright red at autumn maturity, but change to dark red as they hang on to the tree throughout much of the winter, serving as a food source to wildlife.

As with many species, where an individual tree bears fruit heavily in one year, the following year is often scarce in fruit. This is termed an alternate-year cycle of fruit production, even though some fruits are borne in the "off-year" cycle.

The thorn-free twigs of Sargent Crabapple comprise its dense, horizontal canopy. Mature bark is fissured into irregular-sized gray plates. This tree is sometimes grafted onto a different rootstock, and therefore root suckers frequently form at the base of the trunk.