Leaves glabrous, obovate, acute or rounded at apex, cuneate and gradually narrowed to the slender entire base, and sharply serrate above with minute appressed usually gland-tipped teeth, when they unfold tinged with red, membranaceous and nearly fully grown when the flowers open about the 1st of June, and at maturity thick and coriaceous, dark green and lustrous above, pale below, reticulate-venulose, 1′—4′ long, and ¼′—1′ wide, with a slender midrib, and primary veins within the parenchyma; turning bright orange and scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles stout, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots acute or acuminate, coarsely serrate, often 5′—6′ long. Flowers ⅔′ in diameter, on slender pedicels, in many-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes linear-lanceolate, entire or minutely glandular-serrate; stamens 10; anthers rose color; styles usually 2, surrounded at base by tufts of pale hairs. Fruit ripening late in October and persistent on the branches until spring, short-oblong to subglobose, ½′ long, dull red often covered with a glaucous bloom; calyx little enlarged; nutlets usually 2, full and rounded at the ends, with a high rounded grooved ridge, ¼′ long.
A tree, sometimes 25° high, with a trunk a foot in diameter, covered with dark brown, scaly bark, stout rigid spreading branches forming a broad round-topped head, and glabrous, light brown or gray branchlets armed with stout straight or slightly curved sharp-pointed chestnut-brown or ashy gray spines 3′—4′ long and becoming on the trunk and large branches 6′—8′ in length and furnished with slender lateral spines.
Distribution. Usually on the slopes of low hills in rich soil; valley of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, southward to Delaware and along the Appalachian foothills to North Carolina, and westward through western New York and Pennsylvania to southern Michigan.
A form, var. pyracanthifolia Ait., with narrower elliptic to obovate leaves acute or rounded at apex, and slightly pubescent while young on the upper side of the midrib, and with rather smaller flowers and smaller bright red fruit, is not rare in eastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware; a form, var. salicifolia Ait., cultivated in European gardens, but not known in a wild state, with thinner narrower and more elongated lanceolate or oblanceolate leaves, should also probably be referred to this species. A form, var. oblongata Sarg., with rather brighter colored oblong fruit often 1′ long, and nutlets acute at the ends, is not rare near Wilmington, Delaware, and at Durham, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A form, var. capillata Sarg., with thinner leaves, slightly villose corymbs, and 1 or rarely 2 nutlets, occurs near Wilmington, Delaware.
Often cultivated as an ornamental plant and for hedges in the eastern United States, and very frequently in the countries of eastern and northern Europe.
2. [Cratægus Canbyi] Sarg.
Leaves oblong-ovate to ovate, obovate or oval, acute, acuminate or rarely rounded at apex, gradually narrowed, cuneate and entire at base, and coarsely often doubly serrate above the middle, more than half grown when the flowers open about the 1st of May and then glabrous or very rarely with a few scattered hairs on the upper side of the midrib and on the corymbs, and at maturity coriaceous, glabrous, dark green and very lustrous above, pale and dull below, 2′—2½′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide, with a thick pale midrib, and 4 or 5 pairs of remote primary veins conspicuous on the lower surface; petioles glandular with scattered dark red persistent glands, red below the middle, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often deeply and irregularly divided into broad acute lobes, and frequently 3′—4′ long and 2′ wide. Flowers ⅝′ in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in broad loose many-flowered long-branched corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, the lobes entire or serrate with minute scattered glandular teeth; stamens usually 10, occasionally 12 or 13; anthers, small, rose color; styles 3—5. Fruit ripening in October but persistent until after the beginning of winter, on elongated slender stems, in loose many-fruited drooping clusters, short-oblong to subglobose, rounded at the ends, with a distinct depression at the insertion of the stalk, lustrous, dark crimson, marked by occasional large pale dots, ½′—⅝′ long; calyx-lobes reflexed, closely appressed, often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, bright red, very juicy; nutlets 3—5, with a broad rounded ridge, bright chestnut-brown, about ¼′ long.
A bushy tree, sometimes 20° high, with a trunk 12′—18′ in diameter, large ascending wide-spreading branches forming a broad open irregular head occasionally 30°—35° in diameter, and glabrous chestnut-brown branchlets armed with thick usually straight chestnut-brown spines ¾′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Hedges and thickets near Wilmington, Newcastle County, Delaware; shores of Chesapeake Bay (near Perryville, Cecil County), Maryland, and in eastern Pennsylvania.