The **apple (Malus domestica)** is the classic temperate fruit tree and the natural backbone of a forest garden's canopy layer. It is a complex hybrid, descended largely from the wild apple *Malus sieversii* of the Tian Shan mountains in Central Asia, and has been cultivated for thousands of years. **Fascinating notes:** - Apples do not come true from seed — every pip is a genetic lottery. To grow a known variety, a cutting must be grafted onto a rootstock, so a named apple tree is effectively a clone. - The rootstock, not the variety, controls the tree's size: dwarfing stocks such as M27 keep a tree to head height, while vigorous stocks like M25 produce a full standard. - The UK alone has well over 2,000 recorded apple varieties, many of them old local cultivars tied to a single county or even a single parish. - Apple blossom is a valuable early nectar source, and a well-grown tree gives flower in spring, fruit in autumn and habitat all year — exactly the multi-storey value a forest garden is built on.