The tree is winter-hardy and drought-resistant, growing 5–8 m (16–26 ft) tall in the wild (<5 m under cultivation), with a globular crown and very dark purplish-brown bark.

[7] Niedzwetzky's apple is rare, often growing as an isolated tree, and is endangered throughout its range by agricultural encroachment and logging operations.

The conservation group Fauna & Flora International is working to save and restore the species in that country, and has put M. niedzwetzkyana on its endangered list, brought it under its Global Trees Campaign, and planted over 1,000 saplings in area forests in 2010 and 2011.

It is believed to be the ancestor of Surprise, a pink-fleshed apple that was brought to the United States by German immigrants around 1840 and was later used by the horticulturist Albert Etter to breed some 30 pink- and red-fleshed varieties, the best-known of which is Pink Pearl.

[10] Another horticulturist, Niels Ebbesen Hansen, encountered M. niedzwetzkyana in the Ili valley, where he also met Niedzwetzky, in what was then the Russian region of Turkestan (but now Kazakhstan) during his 1897 expedition.