Asian wild apple
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Asiatic wild apple ( Malus sieversii ), fruit |
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| Malus sieversii | ||||||||||||
| ( Ledeb. ) M. Roem. |
The Asian Wild apple ( Malus sieversii ) is a deciduous tree -type from the genus of apples ( Malus ) in the family of Rosaceae (Rosaceae).
description
The Asian wild apple is a tree that reaches a height of about 5 to 30 meters. It will be at least 300 years old, probably much older. Old specimens reach a trunk diameter of one meter, in extreme cases two meters. In habit it is quite similar to the cultivated apple ( Malus domestica ). Its fruits are the largest of all wild apple species; they grow up to 7 cm. Their taste is different and ranges from sour to sweet. The fruits of some specimens of the Asian wild apple from the Tianshan Mountains are very tasty and quite comparable to the cultivated apple.
The number of chromosomes is 2n = 34.
distribution
The homeland of the Asian wild apple is in Central Asia ; the distribution area extends from southern Kazakhstan through Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the Chinese Xinjiang .
In some places in the Tianshan Mountains, the Asian wild apple is a feature of the population. For example, there is a large apple tree forest in the Djungarian Alatau , a mountain range of the Tianshan Mountains. It grows at an altitude between 1500 and 2200 m.
Danger
The Asian wild apple is registered in the IUCN Red List under the category endangered , which means that there is a high risk of extinction in the immediate future. The main cause is the destruction of the habitat of the species. For example, large apple tree forests near Alma-Ata , the former capital of the Kazakh SSR , which still existed in 1945, have now been cut down to small remnants. Over 70% of its habitat has been destroyed in the last 30 years.
Systematics, stem form of the cultivated apple
The Asian wild apple was first described by the German naturalist Carl Friedrich von Ledebour in 1833 under the name Pyrus sieversii , who discovered it in the Altai Mountains .
For a long time it was assumed that the cultivated apple ( Malus domestica ) emerged as a - possibly accidental - hybrid of two or more natural species of the genus Malus . However, recent DNA analysis by Barrie Juniper of the Plant Science Department at Oxford University and others indicated that this assumption is likely to be incorrect. The DNA analyzes were based on leaf samples from specimens of the Asian wild apple, which were collected on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains in the border area between northwest China and Kazakhstan.
Since the samples had several gene sequences in common with the cultivated apple ( Malus domestica ), it is now assumed that the cultivated apple is derived directly from the Asian wild apple - possibly with the crossing of the Caucasus apple ( Malus orientalis ).
The geneticist Barrie Juniper argues that the brown bears of the Tianshan Mountains have been responsible for the selection of particularly tasty specimens of Malus sieversii over millions of years . Because they mainly eat sweet apples. If they deposit their feces in numerous places, the seeds of these apple trees contained in it can germinate and are thus spread.
Others
The species has recently been cultivated at the US Agricultural Research Service , among others ; it is hoped to gain genetic material and valuable knowledge for cultivating cultivated apples. Some specimens cultivated under scientific observation show surprisingly high disease resistance.
In Kazakhstan the apple is called alma ; The city of Alma-Ata , whose name means "father of apples", is located in the region with possibly the oldest occurrence of the species .
The Kazakh pomologist Aymak Djangaliev (* 1913; † June 21, 2009) has dedicated his entire life to research and the protection of this species; He studied in Moscow and did his doctorate there on this very same species. Through his scientific and historical research, he was able to show that the original apple had a gene combination that was lost during domestication and the journey from Asia to Europe. Djangaliev also dealt with the possibilities that arise from his discovery.
Web links
- Cultivation attempts with the BLE
- Malus sieversii inthe IUCN 2013 Red List of Endangered Species . Posted by: Participants of the FFI / IUCN SSC Central Asian regional tree Red Listing workshop, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (11-13 July 2006), 2007. Accessed December 2, 2013.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Malus sieversii at Tropicos.org. In: IPCN Chromosome Reports . Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
- ^ Film "Old genes for new apples", Arte.
- ^ Film "Old genes for new apples", Arte.
- ^ Film "Old genes for new apples", Arte.
- ↑ Old genes for new apples , ARTE / MRD (TV)
- ↑ Rediscovering the Garden of Eden ( Memento of the original from December 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , KazakhstanLive.com.
