A tree, sometimes 20° high, with a trunk 7′—8′ in diameter, covered with dark gray or brown scaly bark, ascending or slightly spreading branches forming a narrow irregular head, and stout glabrous branchlets dark chestnut-brown in their first season becoming dark gray, and armed with numerous slender bright chestnut-brown lustrous ultimately gray spines 2′—2½′ long.
Distribution. Open woods and the borders of fields and roads, western North Carolina, usually at altitudes of 2000°—3000° above the sea.
VIII. MOLLES.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Stamens 20. Anthers pale yellow or white (rose color in 71). Leaves broad and rounded, truncate or cordate at base; fruit subglobose to short-oblong or obovoid, red, crimson or scarlet. Mature leaves glabrous on the upper surface. Leaves thin. Fruit subglobose to short-oblong, scarlet, ripening in August and September.68. [C. mollis] (A). Fruit obovoid to short-oblong, dark red, ripening in October.69. [C. sera] (A). Leaves subcoriaceous; fruit short-oblong to obovoid, crimson, ripening in October and November.70. [C. arkansana] (C). Mature leaves scabrate on the upper surface; fruit depressed-globose, red, ripening in August and September.71. [C. gravida] (A). Leaves broad-cuneate or rounded at base, acute or acuminate, scabrate on the upper surface at maturity. Fruit red. Leaves villose below at maturity on midrib and veins, those at the end of vigorous shoots cuneate at base; flowers in usually 7—12-flowered corymbs; fruit short-oblong, orange-red.72. [C. invisa] (C). Leaves hoary-tomentose below at maturity, those at the end of vigorous shoots rounded, cordate or abruptly cuneate at the broad base; flowers in 15—20-flowered corymbs; fruit ellipsoidal, ovoid, short-oblong or subglobose, crimson.73. [C. limaria] (C). Fruit bright canary yellow, subglobose; leaves villose below at maturity elliptic to ovate, oval or slightly obovate.74. [C. viburnifolia] (C). Leaves narrowed at base. Mature leaves glabrous on the upper surface; fruit short-oblong to subglobose. Leaves oblong-obovate or oval.75. [C. Berlandieri] (C). Leaves elliptic to ovate or slightly obovate.76. [C. meridionalis] (C). Mature leaves scabrate on the upper surface; fruit subglobose to short-oblong, red. Leaves ovate to oval; flowers in 3—10-flowered corymbs; calyx-lobes glabrous.77. [C. Treleasei] (C). Leaves ovate; flowers in many-flowered corymbs; calyx-lobes villose.78. [C. canadensis.] Anthers rose color. Leaves broad at base. Mature leaves smooth on the upper surface. Leaves thick, ovate, acute at apex; fruit short-oblong to obovoid, bright cherry red.79. [C. corusca] (A). Leaves thin, broad-ovate to suborbicular, rounded at apex; fruit subglobose to ovoid, bright yellow.80. [C. Kelloggii] (A). Mature leaves scabrate on the upper surface, oblong-obovate; fruit short-oblong, crimson.81. [C. induta] (C). Leaves narrowed at base; fruit red. Leaves yellow-green. Mature leaves glabrous on the upper surface; fruit short-oblong to obovoid.82. [C. texana] (C). Mature leaves scabrate on the upper surface. Fruit subglobose to short-oblong.83. [C. quercina] (C). Fruit obovoid.84. [C. pyriformis] (C). Leaves blue-green, subcoriaceous, ovate to suborbicular, scabrate on the upper surface; fruit subglobose to short-oblong, red.85. [C. lanuginosa] (C). Stamens 10. Anthers yellow. Leaves broad at base. Leaves smooth on the upper surface. Leaves ovate or rarely oval, dark yellow-green above; fruit subglobose, crimson, ripening late in August.86. [C. arnoldiana] (A). Leaves ovate, blue-green above; fruit obovoid to short-oblong, scarlet, ripening in September.87. [C. champlainensis] (A). Leaves scabrate on the upper surface, ovate, acute, rounded or abruptly cuneate at base; anthers nearly white; fruit short-oblong, bright orange-red.88. [C. pennsylvanica] (A). Leaves cuneate at base, scabrate on the upper surface, ovate, acute; fruit obovoid, orange-red.89. [C. submollis] (A). Anthers rose color. Leaves broad at the rounded, abruptly cuneate or cordate base. Leaves scabrate on the upper surface. Leaves oval, rounded or cuneate at base; flowers in wide many-flowered corymbs; fruit short-oblong, crimson.90. [C. Ellwangeriana] (A). Leaves oblong-ovate; flowers in compact few-flowered corymbs; fruit obovoid to short-oblong, scarlet.91. [C. Robesoniana] (A). Leaves smooth on the upper surface at maturity, ovate, usually broad-cuneate at base; fruit obovoid to short-oblong, crimson.92. [C. anomala] (A). Leaves cuneate at base, smooth on the upper surface at maturity; fruit subglobose, orange-red.93. [C. noelensis] (C).
68. [Cratægus mollis] Scheele. Red Haw.
Leaves broad-ovate, acute, usually cordate or rounded at the wide base, coarsely and generally doubly serrate with straight glandular teeth, and more or less deeply divided into 4 or 5 pairs of acute or rounded lateral lobes, covered above with short pale hairs and hoary-tomentose below when they unfold, about half grown when the flowers open early in May and then membranaceous, light yellow-green and hairy above and pubescent or tomentose below, and at maturity firm in texture, dark yellow-green and slightly rugose on the upper surface and paler and pubescent or puberulous on the lower surface along the stout midrib, and 4 or 5 pairs of primary veins extending to the point of the lobes, 3′—4′ long and broad; petioles stout, terete, at first tomentose, ultimately pubescent or nearly glabrous, often slightly glandular with small dark caducous glands, 1′—1¼′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots more deeply lobed, with a deeper basal sinus, and frequently 5′—6′ long and broad. Flowers 1′ in diameter, on stout densely villose pedicels, in broad many-flowered tomentose corymbs, with conspicuous bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, hoary-tomentose, the lobes narrow, acuminate, coarsely glandular-serrate with bright red glands, villose on the outer, tomentose on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers large, light yellow; styles 4 or 5, surrounded at base by a broad ring of hoary tomentum. Fruit ripening late in August and early in September, on stout pedicels, in drooping few-fruited villose clusters, short-oblong to subglobose, rounded at the ends, more or less pubescent, scarlet marked by occasional large dark dots; ¾′—1′ in diameter; calyx prominent, hairy, with large erect and incurved lobes usually deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, yellow, subacid, dry and mealy; nutlets 4 or 5, thin, rounded and obscurely ridged on the back, light brown, ¼′ long.
A tree, sometimes 40° high, with a tall trunk often 18′ in diameter, heavy wide-spreading smooth ashy gray branches forming a broad round-topped and often symmetrical head, and stout branchlets covered at first with a thick coat of long white matted hairs, villose during their first season, becoming glabrous in their second year, and armed with occasional straight thick bright chestnut-brown shining spines 1′—2′ long.
Distribution. Low rich soil usually on the bottom-lands of streams; northern Ohio and southwestern Ontario (Point Edward) to northern Missouri, eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, and eastern Kansas; common; near Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee.