A tree, sometimes 25° high, with a trunk 6′ in diameter and 3°—6° long, covered with dark gray bark separating into thin plates, in falling disclosing the yellow inner bark, numerous ascending branches forming an oblong or pyramidal crown, and slender branchlets dark dull red-brown during their first season, becoming dark gray-brown the following year, and unarmed, or armed with slender nearly straight dull red-brown ultimately ashy gray spines 1′—1½′ long; or often shrubby, with numerous stems spreading into small clumps.
Distribution. Dry open places, borders of woods, and the margins of the high banks of streams; common and generally distributed in northeastern Illinois.
62. [Cratægus paucispina] Sarg.
Leaves oblong-obovate, acuminate, rounded, concave-cuneate to truncate or subcordate at the entire base, sharply doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and deeply divided into 4 or 5 pairs of acute lateral lobes spreading or pointing toward the apex of the leaf, about half grown when the flowers open early in May and then light yellow-green and slightly roughened above by short white hairs and paler and glabrous below, and at maturity membranaceous, dark blue-green and scabrate on the upper surface, pale blue-green on the lower surface, 2½′—3′ long, and 1½′—2½′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, and thin primary veins extending obliquely to the point of the lobes; petioles slender, usually without glands, tinged with purple in the autumn, ¾′—1½′ in length. Flowers ⅝′—¾′ in diameter, on slender hairy pedicels, in broad 12—20-flowered slightly villose corymbs, their bracts and bractlets linear to oblong-obovate, glandular, red, mostly persistent until after the flowers open; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes narrow, acuminate, glandular-serrate with small dark red stipitate glands, glabrous on the outer, pubescent on the inner surface; stamens 10; anthers bright reddish purple; styles 4 or 5, surrounded at base by tufts of pale hairs. Fruit ripening during the first half of September and soon falling, on slender glabrous pedicels, in drooping clusters, obovoid to subglobose, crimson or purplish, marked by numerous small pale dots, slightly pruinose, ½′—⅝′ long, and about ½′ in diameter; calyx small, with reflexed and appressed or erect and incurved serrate lobes dark red on the upper side below the middle, often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thin, yellow, juicy, acid and edible; nutlets 4 or 5, thin, narrowed and acute at the ends, rounded and slightly grooved or obscurely ridged on the back, about ¼′ long.
A tree, sometimes 25° high, with a trunk 4′—6′ in diameter and often 6° long, covered with dark gray or nearly black bark separating into thin plate-like scales, numerous branches forming a round-topped head, and slender glabrous branchlets dark yellow-green when they first appear, becoming dark reddish brown at the end of their first season, olive-green in their second year, and ultimately dark gray-brown, and armed with small straight light red-brown shining spines ½′—¾′ long.
Distribution. Woods and river banks in dry clay soil; northeastern Illinois; common.
63. [Cratægus pentandra] Sarg.
Leaves oval or ovate, acuminate, broadly cuneate or rarely rounded at the entire base, divided above the middle into numerous short acute or acuminate lobes, and coarsely and often doubly serrate with straight or incurved teeth tipped with small dark glands, nearly fully grown and very thin when the flowers open at the end of May, and at maturity membranaceous, dark green and roughened above by short rigid pale hairs, pale and glabrous below, 2′—2½′ long, and 1½′—2′ wide, with a slender yellow midrib, and thin primary veins extending to the point of the lobes; petioles slender, often winged toward the apex, glandular with minute dark glands, usually about 1′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots more deeply lobed, and often 4′ long and 3′ wide. Flowers ⅝′—¾′ in diameter, on long slender pedicels, in compact few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, dark red, the lobes linear-lanceolate, entire or finely glandular-serrate; stamens usually 5, occasionally 6—10; anthers large, dark red-purple; styles 3, surrounded at base by a thin ring of hoary tomentum. Fruit ripening about the middle of September and soon falling, on stout pedicels, in drooping narrow clusters, short-oblong, full and rounded at the ends, dark crimson, lustrous, marked by minute pale dots, usually about ⅝′ long and ½′ in diameter; calyx enlarged and persistent, the lobes elongated, strongly incurved, often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, dry and mealy; nutlets 3, narrowed and acute at the ends, prominently ridged on the back with a high broad ridge, ⅓′ long.