Fruitful Tree

Nature is marvellous in its beauty and fecundity.  It is also extraordinary in its wastefulness: myriad offspring are produced in the expectation that only a few will survive to maturity; wasteful, but evolution has made it a strategy that works.  Humankind is likewise marvellous in its ingenuity and is similarly wasteful.  Plant breeding has produced a bountiful crab apple tree, but its fruit is no longer needed and goes to waste.  When the tree dies it is likely to be replaced only by accident.