As usual, I have no idea if this is a common tree that I should have been noticing for years, or is unusual. Is this what crab apples look like, with all those hairs, and more fig-shaped than apple shaped at the stem end? It's apparently a street tree, on 6th west of Maple in Vancouver, four on each side along the block. I forgot to pick a fruit and pull it apart to see how it's formed. Is there a name for the things hanging off the crown? I had a hard time describing this for the title, particularly since I also don't know if this is the ripe fruit colour or not.
Re: What tree? 4cm yellow brown fruit with 5 long hanging things at crown Looks like a Medlar, Mespilus germanica.
Re: What tree? 4cm yellow brown fruit with 5 long hanging things at crown Thanks, Poetry. A friend saw the posting and suggested the same. I've only heard the name, but do really think the tree is new to me. Wikipedia makes them sound quite interesting: The medlar is native to Persia and has an ancient history of cultivation; it was grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans, beginning in the 2nd century BCE. The medlar was a very popular fruit during the Victorian era; however, it is now a rarely appreciated fruit, except in certain areas, such as the north of Iran. It seems the fruit is edible when it softens after the frost.
Re: What tree? 4cm yellow brown fruit with 5 long hanging things at crown Yep; after frost, it gets to taste a bit like stewed apples.
I think these are the medlar flower buds - they're shaped so much like the fruit that I wondered if I'd missed the flowers.
Thanks, Michael. I see now that Wikipedia says that (I wouldn't have known that when I asked what the fruit was). I'm adding the Wikipedia link - the writer really got into medlars in literature; it's fun to read. My science education is seriously lacking. I never really got the concept of flowers with inferior ovaries having their sepals at the bottom end of the fruit, though medlars are pomes, and it says some pomes have half-inferior ovaries. Here's the link to that explanation.
I finally managed to see the blossoms, so I'm adding photos to complete the description. Most of these eight trees look like the one photographed in the first posting, but there's one that looks more like a shrub. The flowers in this posting are from several of the trees. The flowers are white, but age to pink if the white petals don't drop off first. They're mostly single blossoms, but some blossoms have staminodes or similar extra petal-looking things. Most blossoms were a bit over 4cm in diameter. All the parts are fuzzy - at least the sepals, stems and leaves. I was surprised at how soft the leaves feel.
