Distribution. Rocky banks of streams; western Texas (Comal, Kendall, Bandera, Edwards, Brown and Calhoun Counties, and on the Davis Mountains, Jeff Davis County); common on the banks of the Guadalupe and other streams on the Edwards Plateau.
Interesting as the extreme southwestern representative of the Crus-galli Group, and its only species in western Texas.
17. [Cratægus denaria] Beadl.
Leaves oval, oblong-obovate or elliptic, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually narrowed from near the middle and cuneate and entire below, and coarsely often doubly serrate above with straight teeth, when they unfold tinged with red and slightly pilose above and glabrous below, nearly fully grown when the flowers open toward the end of May, and at maturity firm to subcoriaceous, bright green and lustrous on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 2½′—3′ long, and ¾′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and few remote thin primary veins; turning in the autumn orange, yellow, or brown; petioles stout, conspicuously glandular, and about ¼′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broadly oval to ovate or obovate, occasionally incisely lobed, 2½′—3′ long, and 1½′—2′ wide. Flowers ½′—⅔′ in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in broad lax many-flowered sparingly villose corymbs; calyx narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes slender, elongated, acuminate and glandular at apex, mostly entire or slightly serrate below; stamens usually 10; styles 3—5. Fruit on long slender pedicels, in drooping few-fruited clusters, globose to subglobose, ¼′—5/16′ in diameter, orange-red, the calyx somewhat enlarged, with spreading or closely appressed lobes; nutlets 3—5, slightly ridged on the back, about 3/16′ long.
A tree, 18°—20° high, with a trunk sometimes 8′ in diameter, spreading branches, and branchlets sparingly villose with long matted white hairs when they first appear, soon glabrous, and unarmed or armed with occasional straight slender spines about 1½′ long.
Distribution. Banks of streams, eastern Mississippi; common in the neighborhood of Columbus, Lowndes County.
18. [Cratægus signata] Beadl.
Leaves obovate to elliptic, rounded and often short-pointed or acute at apex, gradually narrowed from near the middle and cuneate at the entire base, and sharply glandular-serrate usually only above the middle, about half grown when the flowers open early in April, and then gray-green and coated above and on the lower side of the midrib and principal veins with short pale hairs, and at maturity thin and firm in texture, dark green, lustrous and slightly pilose above, paler and pubescent below on the slender midrib and 2—5 pairs of primary veins, 1½′—2′ long, and ¾′—1′ wide; petioles slender, grooved above, glandular, usually about ⅓′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often broad-ovate to elliptic, coarsely dentate or sometimes incisely lobed, frequently 2½′ long and 2′ wide. Flowers about ¾′ in diameter, on slender pedicels, in few-flowered compact hairy corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, villose with long matted hairs, the lobes narrow, acute, entire or irregularly glandular-serrate, usually glabrous on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface; stamens 10; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a few pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling toward the end of October, in few-fruited drooping slightly villose clusters, short-oblong, rounded at the ends, dark red, more or less pruinose, marked by numerous pale dots, and about ½′ long; calyx enlarged, with elongated closely appressed lobes usually persistent on the ripe fruit; flesh thin and yellow; nutlets 3—5, prominently ridged and grooved on the back, about ¼′ long.