A tree, usually 15°—18° high, with a tall trunk 4′—5′ in diameter, covered with ashy gray bark, often nearly black near the base of old stems, and separating freely into thin plate-like scales, numerous ascending or spreading branches forming a round-topped or oval compact head, and stout chestnut-brown branchlets armed with stout, nearly straight bright chestnut-brown spines 1′—2′ long.
Distribution. Open glades and dry copses of the Pine-covered coast-plain of southern Alabama.
19. [Cratægus edita] Sarg.
Leaves oblong-obovate or rarely elliptic, acute at the gradually narrowed apex, gradually narrowed from near the middle to the cuneate entire base, and coarsely and often doubly serrate above, when the flowers open from the 15th to the 20th of April lustrous and scabrate on the upper surface with short rigid pale hairs and puberulous on the lower surface, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green, lustrous, and slightly roughened above, pale yellow-green and scabrate below, 1½′—2′ long, and ½′—1′ wide; petioles stout, villose, becoming pubescent or puberulous, ⅓′—½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often slightly divided into lateral lobes, more coarsely serrate and sometimes 3′ long, and 1½′ wide, with stout broadly winged petioles. Flowers ½′—⅔′ in diameter, on slender villose pedicels, in villose few-flowered narrow corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous or slightly hairy toward the base, the lobes linear-lanceolate, usually entire or obscurely glandular-serrate, glabrous on the outer surface and puberulous on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers small, rose color; styles 2 or 3. Fruit ripening early in October or in November, on stout glabrous or slightly villose pedicels usually about ½′ long, in drooping few-fruited clusters, short-oblong, rounded at the ends, slightly pruinose, dull green tinged with red, ¼′—⅓′ long, with a prominent calyx-tube and elongated spreading lobes puberulous on the inner surface and often deciduous before the ripening of the fruit; flesh very thin, green, dry and hard; nutlets 2 or 3, with a broad low rounded ridge, ¼′ long.
A tree, in low moist ground sometimes 40° high, with a trunk 1° in diameter, free of branches for 18°—20°, stout horizontal branches forming a broad round symmetrical head, and nearly straight branchlets villose when they first appear, soon glabrous, light chestnut-brown becoming dark gray-brown in their second or third year, and armed with stout or slender straight chestnut-brown spines 1′—2′ long; or on the dry soil of low hills much smaller and generally 20°—25° high.
Distribution. Low wet woods on the borders of streams, and on dry hills in forests of Oak and Pine; near Marshall, Harris County, Texas; Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
20. [Cratægus tersa] Beadl.
Leaves oblong to obovate, rounded and obtuse at apex, gradually narrowed to the concave-cuneate entire base, and coarsely serrate above with acute or rounded teeth, when they unfold tinged with red, sparingly villose above and tomentulose below, nearly fully grown when the flowers open the middle of April, and at maturity coriaceous, dark green, lustrous, and glabrous or scabrate above, pale and pubescent below, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and thin primary veins; turning in the autumn yellow, orange, and brown; petioles stout, at first hoary-tomentose, glabrous at maturity, about ½′ in length; leaves on the end of vigorous shoots, broad-obovate, short-pointed at the rounded apex, often 2′ long and 1½′ wide, with a prominent midrib and primary veins. Flowers ⅝′—¾′ in diameter, on short stout hairy pedicels, in usually 8—10-flowered very compact corymbs densely clothed with long matted pale hairs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, villose, the lobes acuminate, glandular-serrate, villose on the outer and slightly pilose on the inner surface; stamens 18—20; anthers pale rose color, styles usually 2 or 3. Fruit ripening in October, on stout glabrous stems, in compact drooping few-fruited clusters, globose to subglobose or short-oblong, about ⅜′ long, dark red; calyx prominent, with enlarged erect or spreading glandular-serrate lobes; flesh thin, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 2 or 3, mostly obtuse and rounded at the ends, about ¼′ long.