Small trees with purplish wood. Leaves bronze at first, becoming dark green. Flowers 3-4 cm wide, purplish red, becoming paler with time. Fruit about 2 cm wide, reddish purple with a persistent calyx. A hybrid, M. 'Niedwetzkyana' × M. ×atrosanguinea, raised by Barbier of Orleans, France, c. 1900. Syn. M. floribunda 'Purpurea', M. floribunda var. purpurea Barb.
Garden origin.
Source: (2002). Rosaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Malus ×purpurea 'Aldenhamensis'
Small tree. Leaves often slightly lobed. Flowers sometimes semidouble in Sept. Fruits about 2.5 cm wide, purplish red, slightly compressed. Originated as a chance seedling found in 1922 in the garden of Hon.Vicary Gibbs, Aldenham, Hertfordshire, uk.
, Eley Crabapple, has young shoots and leaves reddish purple; the fruits are slightly pear-shaped. A hybrid, m. 'Niedwetzkyana' _ m. spectabilis, raised by Charles Eley of East Bergholt, Suffolk, uk. [m. _eleyi (Bean) Hesse]
A medium-sized shrub. Leaves often 2-lobed, purplish, becoming brownish purple. Flowers sometimes slightly double, purple, about 4 cm wide, few on young plants. Fruits purple, about 1.5 cm wide. Raised in France by Lemoine, and int. c. 1922.
Malus ×purpurea 'Sonningensis'
, Sonning Crab. A deep pink-flowered cultivar noticed by the garden designer Edna Walling as a chance seedling in her garden on the property 'Sonning', c. 1936-40. Several specimens are found at Bickleigh Vale Gds, Monbulk, est. 1920s by Edna Walling; this Crab is a feature of the 'Mistover' garden. A new release of this attractive cultivar will commemorate the work of Edna Walling.