The Encyclopedia of Crystals, Herbs, and New Age Elements: An A to Z Guide to New Age Elements and How to Use Them - Adams Media 2016

Crab Apple
The Power of Flowers: Flower Essences

ORIGINS

Malus is a genus of thirty to fifty species of deciduous trees or shrubs that includes the domesticated orchard apple. Native to North America and Eurasia, these trees have clusters of white, pink, or reddish flowers and produce small, tart fruit sometimes used in culinary preparations such as jelly or preserves. Crab apple is one of Bach’s original flower remedies.

HISTORY/LORE

The origin of the term crab apple is unknown. Theories include the taste of the fruit, which is considered sour and disagreeable (like a crabby person), and the crooked shape of the tree’s branches resembling a crab’s legs. Some also suggest that it comes from a Norse word meaning “fruit of the wild apple tree.”

USES

This flower essence is recommended to those who dislike their appearance or personality or otherwise have a negative self-image. It calms the obsession with those things we don’t like about ourselves. Bach categorized it under “for despondency or despair.” He wrote: “This is the remedy of cleansing. For those who feel as if they have something not quite clean about themselves. Often it is something of apparently little importance; in others there may be more serious disease which is almost disregarded compared to the one thing on which they concentrate. In both types they are anxious to be free from the one particular thing which is greatest in their minds and which seems so essential to them that it should be cured. They become despondent if treatment fails. Being a cleanser, this remedy purifies wounds if the patient has reason to believe that some poison has entered which must be drawn out.”