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Information about Malus Sieversii

Malus sieversii
Enlarge picture
A Malus sieversii apple

A Malus sieversii apple
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Rosales
Family:Rosaceae
Subfamily:Maloideae
Genus:Malus
Species:M. sieversii
Binomial name
Malus sieversii
(Ledeb.) M.Roem.


Malus sieversii is a wild apple native to the mountains of Central Asia in southern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Xinjiang, China. It has recently been shown to be the sole ancestor of most cultivars of the domesticated apple (Malus domestica). It was first described (as Pyrus sieversii) in 1833 by Carl Friedrich von Ledebour, a German naturalist who saw them growing in the Altay Mountains.

For many years, there was a debate about whether M. domestica evolved from chance hybridization among various wild species. Recent DNA analysis by Barrie Juniper, Emeritus Fellow in the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University and others, has indicated, however, that the hybridization theory is probably false. Instead, it appears that a single species still growing in the Ili Valley on the northern slopes of the Tien Shan mountains at the border of northwest China and Kazakhstan is the progenitor of the apples we eat today. Leaves taken from trees in this area were analyzed for DNA composition, which showed them all to belong to the species M. sieversii, with some genetic sequences common to M. domestica.

It is a deciduous tree growing to 5-12 m tall, very similar in appearance to the domestic apple. Its fruit is the largest of any species of Malus, up to 7 cm diameter, equal in size to many modern apple cultivars.

This plant has recently been cultivated by the United States Agricultural Research Service, in hopes of finding genetic information of value in the breeding of the modern apple plant. Some, but not all, of the resulting trees show unusual disease resistance. The variation in their response to disease on an individual basis is, itself, a sign of how much more genetically diverse they are than their domesticated descendants.

It is named alma in Kazakhstan; the region in Kazakhstan thought to have the oldest such plants includes the city of Alma-ata, or "Grandfather of Apples".




Tree

Fruit


References

External links

conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species: not simply the number remaining, but the
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vulnerable species is a species which is likely to become endangered unless the circumstances threatening its survival and reproduction improve. The following is a very small, non-representative fraction of the 8565 species listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.
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IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data List), created in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.
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Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
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Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

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Magnoliophyta

Classes

Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Liliopsida - Monocots

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms comprise the two extant groups of seed plants.
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Magnoliopsida
Brongniart

Orders

See text.
Dicotyledons, or "dicots", is a name for a group of flowering plants whose seed typically contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons.
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Rosales
Perleb

Families

Barbeyaceae
Cannabaceae (hemp family)
Dirachmaceae
Elaeagnaceae (oleaster/Russian olive family)
Moraceae (mulberry family)
Rhamnaceae (buckthorn family)
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Rosaceae
Juss.

Global distribution of Rosaceae


Subfamilies

Rosoideae
Spiraeoideae
Maloideae
Amygdaloideae or Prunoideae

The Rosaceae
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Maloideae

Genera

Amelanchier - serviceberry, juneberry
Aronia - chokeberry
Chaenomeles - Japanese quince
Cotoneaster - cotoneaster
Crataegus - hawthorn
Cydonia - quince
Docynia
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Malus
Tourn. ex L.

Species

Malus angustifolia - Southern Crab
Malus baccata - Siberian Crabapple
Malus bracteata
Malus brevipes
Malus coronaria - Sweet Crabapple

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binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
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Carl Friedrich von Ledebour (1785-1851; also Karl Friedrich von Ledebour) was a German-Estonian botanist.

Between 1811 and 1836, he was professor of science in the University of Tartu, Estonia.
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Malus
Tourn. ex L.

Species

Malus angustifolia - Southern Crab
Malus baccata - Siberian Crabapple
Malus bracteata
Malus brevipes
Malus coronaria - Sweet Crabapple

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Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. Though various definitions of its exact composition exist, no one definition is universally accepted. Despite this uncertainty in defining borders, it does have some important overall characteristics.
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Anthem
My Kazakhstan


Capital Astana

Largest city Almaty
Official languages Kazakh (state language), Russian
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Kyrgyz Republic


Flag Coat of arms
Motto
none
Anthem
National Anthem of the Kyrgyz Republic
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Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон
Jumhūrī-yi Tojīkiston

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شىنجاڭ ئۇيغۇر ئاپتونوم رايونى
Shinjang Uyghur Aptonom Rayoni
Chinese:
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This page contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
China (Traditional Chinese:
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cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species. When propagated it retains those characteristics.
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Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
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Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
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Carl Friedrich von Ledebour (1785-1851; also Karl Friedrich von Ledebour) was a German-Estonian botanist.

Between 1811 and 1836, he was professor of science in the University of Tartu, Estonia.
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The Altay Mountains (Russian: Алтай; Mongolian: Алтай, Altai
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University of Oxford (usually abbreviated as Oxon. for post-nominals, from "Oxoniensis"), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world.
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Deciduous means "temporary" or "tending to fall off" (deriving from the Latin word decidere, to fall off) and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally.
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tree is a perennial woody plant. It is sometimes defined as a woody plant that attains diameter of 10 cm (30 cm girth) or more at breast height (130 cm above ground).
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fruit has different meanings depending on context. In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. In many species, the fruit incorporates the ripened ovary and surrounding tissues.
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Over 7,500 cultivars of the apple are known. The following is a list of the more common and important cultivars, with the year and place of origin (where documented), and whether each produces cooking apples or dessert apples.
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