Flowering Crabapple the name "crabapple" has come to be used for wild apple trees from many parts of the world. Generally the fruits of these trees are small, no more than two inches in diameter. Depending upon a person's taste, the fruit may be edible or not. Captain John Smith of the early Virginia Colony reportedly found native crabapples to be bitter, but he liked the flowering trees in the spring.
Crab apples are most popular of the spring-flowering trees in the North and Midwest where cold winters and heavy soil prevent other spring bloomers from performing well.