Crab apple for wildlife

[w33blegurl]

Afternoon all

Happy new year (and lockdown) to all! We are looking to buy a crab apple tree for the garden, mainly for birds and bees (ooh-er). There seems to be a lot of different varieties but I'm not sure if they are all equal in the eyes of the wildlife? Bonus points if it's a good one for jam, but thats definitely a secondary consideration.
Thanks!
Julia

[burnie]

This may help
Crab Apple (Malus sylvestris) - British Trees - Woodland Trust

[B Porcupine]

Well, I can only say that I have a smaller variety called Laura. We had lunch today watching the field fares pecking away at the old fruit on the ground. Lots of pollinators in the spring, too. Oh, and I made a fab jelly from it. Depends on how big a tree you want, this is a columnar one so has a small footprint, but also less fruit.

[mothhawk]

There's one near me that every year absolutely drips with apples from the top branches right down to the ground. It's a small yellow apple and the blackbirds love them, when the fruits fall there's always 8 or 10 blackbirds under the tree eating them. I think it may be Golden Hornet or perhaps Comtesse de Paris. It never fails to fruit and is tall for its spread so doesn't take up too much space.

[mothhawk]

[nickdub]

The other point you may like to consider, though not important to wildlife, is the colour of the flowers. Some varieties are quite a bright pink, whereas others are .... well, more of an apple-blossom colour :-)