Mespilus
Common Medlar foliage and fruit
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rosaceae
Subfamily:	Amygdaloideae[1]
Tribe:	Maleae
Subtribe:	Malinae
Genus:	Mespilus Bosc ex Spach
Species
Mespilus canescens Mespilus germanica

Common-Medlar flowers

Mespilus, commonly called Medlar, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Rosaceae. One, Mespilus germanica, is a long-known native of southwest Asia and possibly also southeastern Europe, and the other, Mespilus canescens, was discovered in North America in 1990.

Mespilus germanica features an unusual apple-like fruit that requires bletting to eat; although not widely eaten today, consumption of these fruits was much more common in the past.

Plant[link]

Mespilus are deciduous large shrubs to small trees growing up to 8 metres (26 ft) tall. The leaves are dark green and elliptic, 6–15 centimetres (2.4–5.9 in) long and 3–4 centimetres (1.2–1.6 in) wide. The leaves turn red in autumn before falling. The five-petaled white flowers, produced in late spring, are hermaphrodite and pollinated by bees. The fruit is a pome, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.2 in) in diameter, with wide-spreading persistent sepals giving a "hollow" appearance to the fruit; it is matte brown in M. germanica and glossy red in M. canescens.

History[link]

Mespilus germanica is apparently native only to Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe, i.e. near the Black Sea coast and western Mediterranean, and Asia Minor, as well as the Caucasus and Northern Iran, but it has an ancient history of cultivation and wild plants exist in a much wider area; it was grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans, beginning in the 2nd century BCE. Mespilus germanica was a very popular fruit in Western Europe during the Victorian era;^{[citation needed]} but has fallen out of favour there.

Related plants[link]

Within subfamily Amygdaloideae, Mespilus is most closely related to Crataegus, Amelanchier, Peraphyllum, and Malacomeles.^[2]

The genus Eriobotrya was once considered to be closely related to Mespilus. The loquat, one of several Eriobotrya species, was formerly thought to be closely related to the genus Mespilus, and is still sometimes known in some European countries as a medlar and is still sometimes called the "Japanese Medlar".

Many authors group Mespilus together with Crataegus in a single genus, with species names Crataegus germanica (L.) Kuntze, and Crataegus ×canescens (J. B. Phipps) T. A. Dickinson & E. Y. Y. Lo.^{[3][4][5][6][7][8]}

Availability[link]

Medlars are not widely available at present, though one can purchase the fruit and trees of Mespilus germanica from specialists.

Trees[link]

The trees are self-fertilizing and long-lived (they can be hundreds of years old), and saplings are cheaply available by mail order in the UK.

External links[link]

• Medlars On Bough photograph
• Medlar Fruit & Jelly, photographs and discussions of medlar preparation
• Medlar Jelly at Tiptree, photo of medlar jelly at vendor in the United Kingdom
• Medlars at Raintree, photo and description at vendor of medlar seedlings in the United States
• Medlar Cheese, a recipe for medlar cheese at historicfood.com
• One Green World a provider of medlar trees in Oregon

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mespilus

Notes[link]