look after yer crabs

[greyman]

I have the BBC tickertape across the top of my PC and this bit of news just lurched its way across the screen. Not actuall about our type of woodlands but none the less interesting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8036785.stm

We have a very large crab apple in our wood and it has flowered amazingly this year:past years we struggled to find a flower or two and have not seen any fruit in the Autumn. Maybe a 'Mast Year' this year then!

[Darren]

Ultimately I think they are onto a loser here. They are not going to stop wild tree cross pollinating with domestic trees. what you end up with is a hybrid. How are there going to stop that? it's already happened with wild carrots etc. I doubt that anything can be done.

If you look at the DNA of your crab trees it will must likely be a hybrid and not a true wild.

[tracy]

I think that we have a hybrid crab apple cos we are having a hard time making it match exactly to the pictures!