Arkansas State Flower: Apple Blossom

Adopted in 1901.

The apple blossom was adopted as the Arkansas State Flower by the Thirty-third General Assembly of 1901. Apple blossoms have pink and white petals and green leaves. At one time Arkansas was a major apple-producing state. The town of Lincoln in Washington County hosts the annual Arkansas Apple Festival.

The apple blossom was chosen because at that time Arkansas was known as the apple state and sometimes called "The Land of the Big Red Apple." At one time Benton County was the chief apple-producing county in the U.S. Today Arkansas ranks 32ndin apple production.

Synonyms/other Latin names: = Malus coronaria var. coronaria (L.) Mill. (NoR)

Common name(s): sweet crabapple

This is a well-known tree, growing from 20 to 40 feet high, with rigid, crooked, spreading branches, and a rough, blackish bark. The apple tree is a native of Europe, naturalized in this country, and flowers from April to June. There are, probably, nearly 1000 varieties cultivated in the United States, and all of which are said to be derived from the Wild crab (Pyrus coronaria, Linné). From the fruit cider is manufactured, and both the fruit and its cider are much used for domestic and medicinal purposes.

Lifespan: Perennial

Height: 9 m

Leaves: The leaves are from 2 to 3 inches long, about 2/3 as wide, ovate, or oblong-ovate, serrate, acute, or short-acuminate, pubescent above, tomentose beneath, and on petioles from 1/2 to 1 inch in length.

Flower Color: The flowers are pink, sometimes fading to white, and very fragrant. The attractive flowers resemble the common apple bloom. Flowers scent the May landscape. Fruit is greenish and ripens in September.

Flower Size: The flowers are large (4 cm) fragrant, expanding with the leaves, of pale-rose color, and borne in subumbellate corymbs. The calyx-tube is urn-shaped, with limb 5-cleft; the pedicels and calyx villose-tomentose. Petals 5, roundish, or obovate, with short claws. Stamens numerous; styles 5, united, and villose at base.

Bloom Season: April-May

Fruit: 2.5-3 cm in diameter; like a small apple; yellow-green, maturing in late summer

Conditions: Moist soils in openings and borders of forests