Sieversii apple tree in Southern Kazakhstan.

“Research in recent decades conducted by English and American scientists has finally convinced the whole world that it is the Kazakh “wild” apple tree - the Sievers apple tree - that is the ancestor of cultivated varieties of apple trees.”

Ainabekov M.S., Turekhanova R.M.

Visit to Sieversii apple forests.

Siversii apple tree (Malus sieversii (Ledeb.) M. Roem.) is one of the main protected objects of the Ile-Alatau National Park. It represents a valuable gene pool, therefore the study and preservation of its form diversity for the purpose of use in modern and future breeding, forest restoration, forest culture and cultivation is an urgent task.
The special value of this species is that it is the keeper of a unique germplasm, the ancestor of many cultivated varieties (Vavilov, 1987; Harris, Robinson, Juniper, 2002; Morgan, Richards, Dowle, 2002). The apple forests of the Trans-Ili Alatau attracted the special attention of scientists after a visit to the famous Soviet geneticist N.I. Vavilova.
Having examined the mountain ranges of wild apple trees around Almaty in 1929, N.I. Vavilov (book “Five Continents. Western China”. 1987) wrote:
“Around the city at a great distance along the mountain slopes there are thickets of wild apple trees, which make up entire forests here. nlike small Caucasian apple trees, Kazakhstan wild apple trees are predominantly represented by large-fruited varieties that differ little from cultivated varieties.
It was September 1st, the time for apples to ripen. One could see with our own eyes that we are in a remarkable center of origin of the cultivated apple tree, where cultivated forms imperceptibly merge with wild ones, where it is difficult to distinguish a wild apple tree from a cultivated one. Some forms are so good in quality and size of the fruit that they can simply be transferred to the garden...”
A detailed study of wild apple trees on the territory of the modern national park, from the Big Almaty Gorge to the Issyk Gorge, was carried out in the early 30s of the last century by M.G. Popov with a group of employees.
The main array of wild fruit trees in those years was concentrated in the area between the Bolshaya Almatinka and Kotyrbulak rivers, where the authors took into account 145,000 fruit-bearing and 25,000 non-fruit-bearing trees.
A variety of apple tree forms has been noted according to the timing of flowering and ripening, size, color and taste of the fruit. It was noted that massive logging of wild apple trees was carried out for economic purposes in the late 20s and early 30s of the last century.
Thus, the Almaty brewery and Talgar distillery were heated with apple wood until 1932. According to M.G. Popov, only in 1926 the Talgar winery prepared 16,000 cubic meters of apple wood for its needs. According to M.G. Popova, A.G. Klabukova, M.P. Malkovsky (1935), apple forests occupied an area of 4500 - 5000 hectares in the foothills between the Malaya Almaty gap and Kotyrbulak (without Turgen).
The apple forest was most common in the middle zone of the foothills, at an altitude of about 1000 meters above sea level. It was noted that before 1935, fruit trees were especially widely cut down for firewood, grass and shrubs in this area were burned on a very large scale, and gentle slopes were plowed under rainfed crops of cereals.
Since the early 30s of the last century, mountain gardening has been intensively developing in the Trans-Ili Alatau, and this process was carried out through cutting down and regrafting wild fruit forests. Afforestation of non-forested areas in the wild fruit zone was carried out with seedlings of cultivated varieties (forest gardens).
A third of the trees in natural apple plantations were regrafted with cultivated varieties, and regrafting continued until the 80s. According to geobotanical studies by N.I. Rubtsov (1941) in the basin of the Malaya Almatinka River, wild apple trees are distributed in the altitude range from 850 - 900 to 1200 - 1400 meters above sea level, where it is the predominant species on the northern slopes.
A repeated inventory of apple forests was carried out back in the 40s by V.I. Infatyev (1947) on the territory of six forest dachas (Maloalmatinskaya, Bolshaya Almatinskaya, Talgarskaya, Issykskaya, Turgenskaya, Malovodnenskaya).
123,000 apple trees were counted; the area of wild fruit thickets was 8,425 hectares. On the fragmented distribution of deciduous forests with the participation of the Sievers apple tree in P.P. paid special attention to the Trans-Ili Alatau in his studies. Polyakov (1948).
The author notes that the best preserved plantings of apple trees and boyarka (with a predominance of apple, Djungarian and Altai boyarka) are in the basins of the Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinka rivers, along Talgar and Turgen.
According to B.I. Kravtsova (1948) in 1870 - 1880 Thickets of apple trees in the Trans-Ili Alatau, according to the testimony of old-timers, were found approximately 150 - 200 meters below the modern border of deciduous forests.
These thickets were destroyed in front of witnesses as part of the economic development of the land. M.V. Gudochkin and P.S. Shepherd (1958) also note that plantings of wild apple trees in the Trans-Ili Alatau were significantly reduced in the 19th century, due to logging in previous years, livestock grazing and improper harvesting, which was accompanied by damage to the trees.
The number of trees per 1 hectare in those years was 86 - 100 or more. In the work of R.Zh. Argimbayeva and B.A. Bykov (1973) summarizes the results of the study of the polymorphism of the petals and the shape of the fruits of the Sievers apple tree in the Trans-Ili Alatau.
B.A. Bykov (1986) points out that populations of this species, located in the lower and central parts of the forest belt, are well distinguished by the shape and color of the fruits, and represent the most valuable gene pool for the selection of cultivated apple trees.
These forests are characterized by high productivity (up to 5 - 10 tons of fruits per hectare), and their fruits are harvested in large quantities every year. Systematic research of wild apple trees in the Trans-Ili Alatau was started in the mid-twentieth century by A.D. Dzhangaliev, who again raised the question of the unique and global significance of the gene pool of apple forests (Dzhangaliev, 1977).
Back in the 60s, they were allocated 8 seed plots of wild apple trees (Kamenskoye Plateau, Bogdanovo-Shchapovo, Anuchina Shchel, Direct Shchel, Kotyrbulak, Mikushino, Kamennaya Shchel, Kuznetsova Shchel) in order to obtain seeds and planting material, select and preserve uterine trees for reproduction in nature and wide involvement in breeding work.
Even then, the last area was characterized as the location of the most extensive tracts of apple trees, characterized by high intraspecific diversity. In 1989, on the initiative of Academician A.D. Dzhangaliev, a working group was created with the participation of candidates of biological sciences R.M. Turekhanova, T.N. Salova, who began a great deal of work on surveying natural mountain fruit plantations on the territory of the modern national park, identifying and describing natural populations of wild apple trees.
An assessment was made of the current state of populations of this species in the selection and genetic areas of Kuznetsova Shchel, Kamennaya Shchel, Mikushino, Pryamaya Shchel, and Kotyrbulak. As a result of a selection inventory of the Kuznetsova Shchel tract (Malovodnenskoye forestry of the Turgen branch), 20 biologically and economically valuable forms of apple trees were identified, five of which were developed by A.D. Dzhangaliev, R.M. Turekhanova and T.N. Salova to clone varieties protected by copyright certificates of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Patents were received for them and included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements (Promyshlennaya, 2006; State, 2006). In 1990 A.D. Dzhangaliev, R.M. Turekhanova T.N. Salova, together with florist Ivashchenko A.A. and leading specialists of the Kazakh forest management enterprise “Lesproekt” carried out an inventory and selection and genetic assessment of the gene pool of wild apple plantations in the listed seed plots.
As a result of research, it has been established that there is a reduction and impoverishment of the forms of wild apple tree thickets due to increasing anthropogenic pressure (Dzhangaliev et al., 2006). In 1993, 1995 and 1996, joint research was carried out by A.D. Dzhangalieva, R.M. Turekhanova, T.N. Salova, with scientists from the USA, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and England studying wild apple trees. Work has been carried out to select forms and assess the genetic diversity of this species (Forsline, Aldwinckle, Dickson, Hokanson, 2003).
Paying tribute to the merits of Kazakh scientists in the study and conservation of wild fruit forests, the US Department of Agriculture and Cornell University in 2003 translated into English and published in mass circulation the book by A.D. Dzhangaliev “Wild Apple Tree of Kazakhstan”, as well as the collective monograph by A.D. Dzhangalieva, T.N. Salova and R.M. Turekhanova “Wild fruit plants of Kazakhstan”.
Thus, the results of many years of research on wild apple trees and other wild fruit and berry plants in Kazakhstan have become the property of the world scientific community. As a result, the efforts of Academician A.D. Dzhangaliev, supported by the global scientific community, initiated the GEF-UNDP international project “In-situ conservation of mountain agrobiodiversity in Kazakhstan,” which started in 2006.
As part of this project, a working group was created (Turekhanova R.M., Salova T.N., Chekalin S.V.), which, under the leadership of Academician Dzhangaliev, in 2006 conducted a survey of apple tree thickets in Zailiysky and On the territory of two modern national parks, Zailiysky and Zhongar-Alatau, an assessment was made of the age composition, completeness of the tree stand, and intraspecific variability of wild apple trees (Dzhangaliev, Chekalin, Salova, Turekhanova, 2006).
An analysis of the state of apple forests in the central part of the Trans-Ili Alatau for 2006 - 2007 confirmed that in the 20th and early 21st centuries there was a significant reduction in the area of wild apple trees, which amounted to 1300 hectares.
Currently, at altitudes of 750 - 850 meters above sea level, where 130 years ago they were common, there are no fruit forests. It has also been established that the Sivers apple tree populations in the Kuznetsov and Kamennaya gorges have the best preserved genetic structure.
Research in recent decades conducted by English and American scientists has finally convinced the whole world that it is the Kazakh “wild” apple tree, the Sievers apple tree, that is the ancestor of cultivated varieties of apple trees.
About the outstanding importance of the gene pool of the wild apple tree of Kazakhstan, especially in the selection of new varieties, the American expert genetic breeder James Luby says this: “as for the Sievers apple tree, among the places it reached after leaving Kazakhstan was America, ultimately producing the Red Excellent , Golden excellent, which are the parents of more than 90% of apple hybrids consumed by people."
In the Ile-Alatau State National Nature Reserve, monitoring of the Sievers apple tree began by employees of the science department in 2007. The results of 8-year studies at monitoring sites, in particular, on the selection and morphometric characteristics of apple tree forms, showed significant fluctuations in the dynamics of fruiting of the species over the years and seed productivity for individual forms (Turekhanova, Ivashchenko, Zhaksylykova, 2015).
The surveyed populations, according to census data at monitoring sites, have a full age spectrum and are characterized by a high proportion of young individuals of coppice origin. The data obtained confirm the enormous role of the apple tree communities of the national park in preserving the overall biological diversity - more than 200 species of higher plants are found only at five monitoring sites (Ivashchenko, Zhaksylykova, 2015), as well as the richness of the morphological diversity of the apple tree itself.
The apple tree is distributed in almost all gorges of the national park - Issyk, Mikushino, Soldatsai, Talgar, Kotyrbulak, Bolshoye and Maloye Almaty, Aksai, Kaskelen, Turgen, Belchabdar in the altitude range from 900 to 1500 meters above sea level, and on the southern slopes it rises to 1600 - 1800 meters above sea level.
It is found in tracts of various sizes, groups and individual trees (Turekhanova, 2011, 2012, Ainabekov, Turekhanova, Ivashchenko, 2012). The wild apple tree in the national park is amazingly diverse, represented by two species - Malus sieversii (Ledeb.) M. Roem. and M. niedzwetzkyana Dieck.
Its fruits, especially the first type, vary greatly in size, shape, color and consistency of the pulp. According to taste qualities, they are distinguished: sweet, sweet and sour, bitter, tart, astringent. Most fruits have a pleasant taste; tart and astringent fruits are found in small quantities.
Their shape is very diverse - from spherical to cylindrical, which indicates the processes of formation occurring in these populations. The color ranges from green to greenish-yellow and yellow, the cover color is red with varying degrees of severity.
In terms of these indicators and nutritional value, wild apple fruits are not much inferior to cultivated varieties, and in terms of the content of biologically active substances they are often superior to the latter. They are rich in pectin substances, the content of which is higher than in the fruits of zoned varieties.
The high content of pectin substances (more than 1%) makes it possible to avoid the addition of gelling components during processing, and their biological activity as antiradiants is beneficial for the human body. The fruits of the Sievers apple tree contain on average 740 mg% of substances with vitamin P activity, which is 7.4 times more than in cultivated fruits.
The high content of P-active substances in combination with increased C-vitamin content is especially valuable due to their mutually reinforcing effects. Wild apples are used to make preserves, marmalade, marmalade, compotes, dried fruits, natural juices, cider, and Calvados.
Fresh fruits are recommended for the treatment of a number of diseases of the intestinal tract and vitamin deficiencies; they are included in the list of official medicine (Grudzinskaya et al., 2014). The species has such economically valuable traits as winter hardiness, productivity, and resistance to pests and diseases.
This is a unique and not fully explored repository of the gene pool for the creation of new, especially resistant to drought and frost and high-vitamin varieties, as well as varieties resistant to pests and diseases (Turekhanova, 2011). Herbert Odwinkle, an apple tree expert at Cornell University, put it very precisely on this matter:
“Kazakh apple forests are unique resources for the planet; the special value of wild (natural) apple trees in Kazakhstan lies in their resistance to diseases.”
The area of these forests over the last century (since the active development of low mountains in the vicinity of Almaty) has decreased significantly, natural regeneration in them has been disrupted, therefore the species itself is listed in the Red Book of Kazakhstan (2014), and the communities are included in the category of rare, requiring special protection (National Strategy, 1999). 
Monitoring studies in the apple forests of the national park are carried out at five stationary monitoring sites, established and described in detail by A.A. Ivashchenko, R.M. Turekhanova. in the fall of 2007 (Ivashchenko, Turekhanova, Zhaksylykova, 2014) in various gorges in the altitude range of 1350 meters above sea level (Aksai gorge) - 1720 meters above sea level (Alma-Arasan gorge).
At all monitoring sites, individuals of tree shrub species were counted, maps were drawn up, tree height and trunk diameter were measured, and the approximate age was determined. A.A. Ivashchenko identified the floristic composition of these areas, which is represented by 215 species from 153 genera and 51 families (Ivashchenko, Zhaksylykova, 2015).
In addition, the morphological diversity of apple trees was studied at all surveyed sites. 60 forms have been identified and described in detail, differing in size, weight, shape, color and taste of the fruit. The fruit yields of the Sievers apple tree were taken into account annually.
Out of 9 years of observations, four high-yield years (2007, 2012, 2013, 2015) and two low-yield years (2008, 2010) were noted. In 2009, fruiting was low at all sites, in 2011, the fruit harvest was noted only at the upper border (Alma-Arasan, 1720 meters above sea level), in 2014 - average in most areas, but high - in the Kuznetsova Shchel valley, in 2015 - abundant throughout the park.
A large center of wild apple trees is located on the north-eastern slope of the Kuznetsova Shchel gorge on the territory of the Malovodnenskoye forestry. This site is the main preserved area in the Trans-Ili Alatau. Therefore, on September 16, 2010, the Forestry and Hunting Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan approved a passport for the Kuznetsovo Gorge genetic reserve. Detailed studies have shown that the apple tree here has great polymorphism in height, morphological characteristics, winter hardiness, productivity, and immunity to pests and diseases.
There are forms of wild apple trees with low yields (41 - 80 kg/tree), and there are also those whose yields reach up to 900 kilograms per tree. Most trees are between 60 and 100 years old, that is, they are in the period of fruiting and growth, while some are drying out.
In general, wild apple trees are extremely long-lived: sometimes you can find specimens aged 160 years or more that are in good condition and bear fruit normally. The fruiting branches are also long-lived, they can live up to 30 years.
A characteristic feature of the Sievers apple tree is the good shoot-regenerating ability of the branches and high bud viability. If the skeletal branches die or are broken off, many buds awaken on the remaining living part of the branch, from which a large number of shoots arise, replacing the dead or broken branch.
A wild apple tree has a high tendency to vegetative propagation. Its natural seed propagation is very low and amounts to no more than 15%. In the first years of life, the seedling is characterized by very slow growth, has a thin, short stem and is very weak.
In most cases, the plant dies due to the competitive ability of grasses. Therefore, the wild apple tree has developed and established the ability for vegetative propagation, mainly by root shoots. In 2014, a high intensity of coppice regeneration was noted in the Kuznetsovo Gorge genetic reserve. On October 17, we carried out censuses on 5-meter areas around one tree.
The average number of root offspring plants here was 21 specimens per square meter, the range of variations was from 6 to 34 specimens per square meter. Annual root shoots here reached an average height of 20.3 cm, the range of fluctuations was from 7 to 53 cm (Turekhanova, Ivashchenko, Zhaksylykova, 2015).
An analysis of the current state of the Sievers apple tree populations was carried out based on data from censuses of individuals at five monitoring sites. Young plants, from one to seven years of age, have mostly of coppice origin - out of 27 such plants, only one seedling was registered.
According to the age composition, six groups were identified: from young, not bearing fruit, to senile (over 130 years old), drying out. Almost all young, vegetative (42.8%) are of shoot origin; the proportion of seedlings, according to our records, does not exceed 1.5%.
Generative individuals in accordance with the classification of A.D. Dzhangaliev (1977) are divided into three groups: 
- young people who have not reached the maximum of individual development – 25.7%);
- middle-aged, with maximum intensity of fruiting (45 - 65 years) - 12.9%;
- aging generative – 11.4%.
The share of subsenile individuals is 2.9%, senile – 4.3%. Fruiting trees vary greatly in fruit weight (18 - 120 g), as well as in shape (round, flattened-rounded, rounded-conical, elongated rounded), in color - from green to greenish-yellow and yellow, the cover - red with different degree of expression, taste (from sour and bitter to sweet-sour, sour-sweet, sweet) and ripening time.
The most common fruits are yellow in color, flattened and round in shape, taste sour, sweet and sour, ripening in the third decade of August. In the Kuznetsovo Gorge genetic reserve, the most common apples are up to 4.0 cm in diameter (72.7%), small ones (up to 2 cm) make up 27.0%, large fruits (up to 6 cm) are relatively rare.
The weight of the first group of fruits ranges from 30 to 40 g; the weight of smaller fruits does not exceed 25 g; large fruits, weighing 100 - 120 g, are rare. Characterized by strong variability in stalk length. Most forms have a stalk 2.1 to 2.5 cm long.
There are apples sitting on both a shorter stalk (up to 1 - 1.5 cm) and a long one (up to 4 cm). In the Soldatsai gorge of the Talgar branch of the national park, apple trees are found in small tracts, groups and individual trees with a predominance of yellow-fruited forms.
The diameter of the fruit ranges from 2.4 to 24 cm, averaging 3.1 cm, the shape of the fruit ranges from round and flattened and round to round and conical and elongated and conical, the taste is dominated by sour and sweet.
Along the Issyk River gorge, apple trees are found in groups and single trees up to an altitude of 1800 meters above sea level. Round, flattened-round, yellow and green apples predominate, weighing from 15.1 to 49.0 g, average weight - 30.6 g.
In height, the size of the fruit ranges from 44.6 to 33.2 cm, averaging 35.6 cm, in diameter from 35.1 to 49.6 cm, averaging 40.6 cm. There are round and conical, elongated and conical and conical shapes of fruits with crimson, bright red and dark red, blurred or streaked, pronounced integumentary coloring.
Most fruits have a sweetish-sweet or sweetish-sour taste. There are forms with sweet aromatic fruits, bitter ones are less common. Polymorphism of the fruits of the Sivers apple tree of the Issyk gorge in Kotyrbulak (Talgar branch, Kotyrbulak forestry) apple trees are found only in small groups, mainly single trees - the most common forms are with round and flattened-round fruits, an average diameter of 3.6 cm, a light green color with blush, sour and sweet-sour taste.
This site also has an issued passport for the Kotyrbulak genetic reserve, approved by the Forestry and Hunting Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan on September 16, 2010. In the Alma-Arasan tract of the Medeu branch of the national park, the apple tree grows in small groups or individual trees.
Trees with fruits of yellow and greenish-yellow color and flat-round shape predominate. The height of the fruit varies from 3.0 cm to 5.0 cm, the average is 3.5 cm, the diameter of the fruit is from 3.2 to 5.5, on average 4.0 cm, the taste is sweet and sour, bitter and sour, bittersweet, fresh.
In the Oizhailau gorge of the Aksai branch of the IAGNPP, the apple tree is found as individual trees among trees and shrubs. The population is dominated by trees with fruits of bright red, purple-crimson, dark red integumentary color (60%).
The red pigment is distributed either in streaks, creating striped fruits to varying degrees, or fills the fruit entirely, without identifying stripes and spots. Yellow-fruited apple trees make up 25%, green-fruited ones – 15%.
Round and flattened and rounded apples predominate; fruits are conical and cylindrical in shape; they taste sour, bitter-sour, sweet-sour, sweet-sour. Sweet forms make up only 25%. The height of the fruit varies from 3.2 cm to 5.5 cm, the average is 4.0 cm, the diameter of the fruit is from 3.7 to 5.4, in average 4.6 cm.
The average length of the stalk is 2.4 cm, varying from 1.3 to 4.3 cm. The fruits of one of the forms (24 - 2015) are distinguished by a thin and long (up to 4.3 cm) stalk. Polymorphism of the fruits of the Sievers apple tree of the Oizhailyau gorge in the Aksai gorge is dominated by small-fruited forms of the apple tree with a yellow color, from round to round-conical, taste sour and sour-sweet, weighing from 18.7 to 47.9 g, average weight 34.4 g (Turekhanova, Ivashchenko, Zhaksylykova, 2014).
There are apples with a bright red, pink continuous coloring in the form of a faint tan, as well as ribbed ones. The diameter of the fruit varies from 2.4 to 6.0 cm, averaging 3.9 cm. The length of the stalks varies from 2.0 to 3.1 cm, there are forms with long (3.7 cm) and thin stalks.
Taking into account our many years of experience in studying the Sievers apple tree throughout the Kazakh part of its range and the results of monitoring studies of the last decade on the territory of the Ile-Alatau National Park, we consider it necessary to formulate some proposals and recommendations for the conservation of Sievers apple tree tracts in the territory of the IAGNPP.
Due to the fact that modern varieties of domestic apple trees are severely affected by various fungal diseases, to obtain more resistant plants, it is necessary to use new genes that are available only in the genetic center of the species.
The territory of Kazakhstan is the northern tip of the Central Asian center of origin of the cultivated apple tree, occupying a leading place in terms of area and diversity of forms of its wild relative. It is necessary to preserve and increase the gene pool of wild apple trees in mountainous areas, to prevent many of the most interesting forms that have arisen over many centuries from disappearing.
Grafting trees of a natural population with varietal material and growing cultivated gardens on its territories, which were widely practiced in the middle of the last century, lead to a change in the genetic structure. Such changes reduce the viability of the natural population and the most important methods of their conservation is the restoration of the natural population structure.
The first step in this direction should be to exclude cross-pollination of natural plantings with cultivated varieties and “semi-cultivated” trees. It is necessary to uproot trees with signs of varietal genes, and organize two-kilometer buffer zones around natural populations.
In such buffer zones, the cultivation of varietal and “semi-cultivated” apple material should be excluded. Conduct sanitary felling to remove dead apple trees. In natural genetic reserves, it is necessary to organize permanent forest seed plots (PLSU) of plus plantings and elite trees for the procurement of seeds used in silvicultural work.
It is necessary to constantly monitor the state of natural apple tree populations. Reforestation of undisturbed areas should be carried out as a last resort, after careful study and monitoring of the natural environment.

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- Harris S.A., Robinson J.P., Juniper D.E. Genetic clues to the origin of the apple. Trend in genetics, 2002. Vol. 18, No. 8. p. 426 - 430. Morgan J., Richards A., Dowle E. The new book of apples. – London, 2002. – 316 p.  
- Philip L. Forsline, Herb S. Aldwinckle, Elizabeth E. Dickson, James J. Luby, Stan C. Hokanson. Coolection, Maintenance Characterization, and Utilization of Wild Apples of Central Asia. Horticultural Reviews, 2003. Volume 29.

Authority: 
“Siversii apple tree in Ile-Alatau National Park: results and prospects of monitoring Ainabekov M.S., Turekhanova R.M. Ile-Alatau State National Natural Park.” 
https://www.acbk.kz/elfinder/files/Data%20zone/Library/theriology/ile_alatauskogo_gnpp_2015_1.pdf 
“Proceedings of the Ile-Alat State National Natural Park. Executive editor: candidate of biological sciences, professor of RAE A.A. Ivashchenko. Compiled by: Candidates of Biological Sciences A.A. Ivashchenko, R.M. Turekhanov. 2015.”

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.