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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-369
Prairie Crabapple
Malus ioensis
Prairie crabapple carries fragrant May-June blossom that draws native bees, bumblebees and honeybees, and it grows into thickets that shelter and feed both large and small birds and mammals. The fruit is harsh and astringent raw but cooks well into jelly, preserves and cider. It spreads into thickets by root sucker as well as bird-sown seed, so the practical way to plant it is as a boundary hedgerow or windbreak block, letting the suckers close the gaps, rather than fighting it toward a single trunk.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 3–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 6.1–7.2
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 15–35 ft
- Mature spread
- 15–25 ft
- Plant spacing
- 15–20 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Both
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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