The Crab-tree or Wild Apple Tree (Pyrus malus), is key to the history of apples. It is a native to Britain and is the ancestor of all the cultivated varieties of apple trees we grow today. It was the rootstock on which new varieties were grafted when brought from Europe.
The Apple tree is from the temperate zones and flourishes best in their cooler regions. It is a tree which has been grown from before the Norman Conquest. It has spread in its wild state in most countries of Europe and as far as the Caucasus. In Norway, it is found in the lowlands as far north as Drontheim.