Need hints for green cross puzzle in town

[Osmium]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=665869487
This is something I can't make heads or tails of what it's even asking me to do. There's a red apple taunting me above the puzzle, but it seems unrelated. This plus sign puzzle format is unprecidented and not seen anywhere else. I've finished the game up to the elevator, but this is one of the only puzzles remaining for me and it seems to be blocking a fair amount of other puzzles.

I've tried brute forcing it, which is annoying because it means dozens of trips to reset the puzzle. All I know is that my first 20 guesses were wrong, which pretty much narrows it down, but I still want to know what they were trying to ask here. The shape of the puzzle resembles some of the leafless trees nearby, but not really. It also kind of (but not really) resembles the windmill on the other side of town.

[Pckables]

Well the fact that you don't understand what the puzzle is asking of you seems to indicate that you haven't finished the puzzles where this type originates from.
If you go to the field of trees behind the windmill, you'll find this kind of puzzle. Finishing those should help give insight on how to solve this without needing outside hints.

Hints:
The Apple is significant

While the shape may not seem to indicate it at first, it is a representation of the tree

What might the 4 different paths represent?

Answer:
Each of the 4 main paths is one of the 4 main splits in the trunk. Each little divet on the path is representative of a branch.
You can find out which path is what part of the tree by counting branches. Then find the correct path and which corresponding branch has the apple on it.

[Osmium]

Thank you very much for the fast and detailed response. I'm going to need to let this stew in my subconcious for a while because even after reading the answer I still don't understand. Every other puzzle on the island has it's syntax explained somewhere, but this one seems to require you to make a unique logical leap with no training. I had solved the pink grove already, and still don't see the connection other than the presence of the apple.

[Pckables]

The pink grove had you counting branches to figure out which one on the grid had the apple, this puzzle is no different, it just has a more complex tree and a different way to show it.


-On the grid you have 4 paths. The top one has 6 divets. The left and right have 7 divets, and the bottom has 8 divets.

-The tree trunk branches out into 4 different paths, that is what the "+" shape of the panel represents.

If you start counting, you'll find that one of the trunk paths has 6 branches, two of them has 7 branches, and one has 8 branches. The one with 8 branches is also the one with the apple on it.

-All you do from there is count how many branches away from the end the apple is. Counting left to right, the apple should be the third-to-last divet on the bottom path.

The puzzle is designed in this abstract way so it looks like nonsense to people who haven't gone to the Pink Grove, but somewhat understandable to those who have.
Again, all these types of puzzles are just counting branches.

[Kira]

I didn't like this one since it was so very different in its relation to the cherry blossom ones. No precedent. But after that one, I really enjoyed the rest of the town.