One of the less well known shrubs of the Rose family in our region, squaw apple is a beautiful plant that deserves wider use. It is an erect to spreading shrub that has deep green, shiny, narrowly almond-shaped leaves and smooth gray bark. In early summer, it becomes covered with blossoms that resemble cherry blossoms and that vary from white to deep pink in color. These have a delicate, sweet fragrance. The flowers are followed by crabapple-like fruits that turn yellow or orange as they mature. These are decidedly inedible but are quite ornamental. Squaw apple is a plant of foothill mountain brush and mountain shrubland communities and is widely distributed in the Intermountain region. It is somewhat slow-growing, at least for the first few years. Its growth is especially slow in shade or with heavy competition from understory grasses. It is free of problems and long-lived in cultivation. It combines well with littleleaf mockorange, mallowleaf ninebark, and alderleaf mountain mahogany.