Malus sylvestris, the European wild apple, is a species of Malus (crabapple), native to Europe from as far south as Spain, Italy and Greece to as far north as Scandinavia and Russia. Its scientific name means "forest apple", and the truly wild tree has thorns.

In the past, M. sylvestris was thought to be an important ancestor of the cultivated apples (M. domestica), but these have now been shown to be primarily derived from the central Asian species M. sieversii. However, another recent DNA analysis showed that M. sylvestris has contributed to the ancestry of M. domestica.

The flowers are hermaphrodite and are pollinated by insects. Its leaves are food of the caterpillars of the Twin-spotted Sphinx (Smerinthus jamaicensis) and possibly the Hawthorn Moth (Scythropia crataegella).