Origin: Europe, western Asia.
Botanical characteristics: It is a small deciduous tree that is slender with thorny branches at the apex. Leaves are cordate to ovate, with serrated, shiny green margins. The autumn colouring ranges from bronze to red. The spring blooming bears large white flowers in umbrella-shaped corymbs. Fruits range from small to globose to pyriform and are yellow or brown at maturity, the taste is bitter if not ripe.
Agronomic and environmental characteristics: It is a wild species, common throughout the peninsula in hardwood forests, on moist, fertile soil, up to 1400 meters above sea level. It adapts to arid and dry conditions.
Use: It is the plant from which probably all the cultivated varieties derive. It is used as rootstock and to naturalize the brownfield and uncultivated areas.
