Distribution. Thickets on a dry bank in the Arnold Arboretum, valley of the Mystic River at West Medford, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and near Lyme, New London County, Connecticut.
Often cultivated in the parks and gardens in the neighborhood of Boston; very conspicuous and easily recognized in winter by its ascending remarkably zigzag branchlets.
87. [Cratægus champlainensis] Sarg.
Leaves ovate, acute, rounded, truncate, slightly cordate or broad-cuneate at base, usually divided into 2 or 3 pairs of short narrow acute lobes, and coarsely often doubly serrate with glandular teeth, roughened above by short pale hairs and villose below when they unfold, nearly fully grown when the flowers open early in June, and at maturity thick and firm in texture, conspicuously blue-green and glabrous above, light yellow-green and somewhat pubescent below on the slender midrib and remote primary veins, 2′—2½′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide; petioles slender, more or less tomentose early in the season, usually becoming glabrous and light red below the middle before autumn, and ¾′—1′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, rounded or slightly cordate at base, more deeply lobed, and often 3′—4′ long and wide. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on short slender densely villose pedicels, in compact few-flowered densely villose corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, coated with thick hoary tomentum, the lobes lanceolate, finely glandular-serrate, tomentose on the outer surface usually only below the middle, villose on the inner surface; stamens 10; anthers small, light yellow; styles 5, surrounded at base by tufts of pale hairs. Fruit ripening early in September and usually remaining on the branches during the remainder of the year, on short slightly pubescent pedicels, in compact erect villose clusters, obovoid to short-oblong, bright scarlet, marked by scattered pale dots, more or less villose or pubescent toward the ends; calyx prominent, persistent, with a long tube, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acuminate, finely glandular-serrate, villose, dark red on the upper side below the middle, spreading or erect; flesh thick, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 5, ridged on the back with a broad ridge, 5/16′ long.
A tree, 15°—20° high, with a tall trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, covered with deeply fissured bark separating into thin loose plate-like scales, stout wide-spreading branches forming a broad round-topped often symmetrical head, and slender somewhat zigzag branchlets coated early in the season with hoary tomentum, soon becoming glabrous and light chestnut-brown and lustrous, and armed with straight or slightly curved chestnut-brown spines 1½′—2′ long.
Distribution. Limestone ridges; valley of the St. Lawrence River near Montreal, Province of Quebec, southward through the Champlain valley to eastern New York and westward through New York, and southern Ontario to the neighborhood of Toronto.
88. [Cratægus pennsylvanica] Ashe.
Leaves ovate, acuminate, rounded or abruptly cuneate at base, coarsely often doubly serrate with straight glandular teeth, and slightly divided into 3 or 4 pairs of short broad acuminate lobes, slightly tinged with red when they unfold, more than half grown when the flowers open the middle of May and then thin, dark yellow-green and roughened above by short white hairs and villose on the prominent midrib and primary veins below, and at maturity thin, dark yellow-green and scabrate on the upper surface, paler, scabrate and still somewhat villose on the midrib and veins below, 2½′—3½′ long, and 2′—2¾′ wide; petioles slender, slightly wing-margined at apex, villose through the season, occasionally glandular, 1¼′—1½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots rounded or truncate at base, coarsely serrate, more deeply lobed, and often 4′—4½′ long and broad, with a stout midrib, prominent primary veins, a conspicuously glandular petiole, and large foliaceous lunate coarsely glandular-serrate persistent stipules. Flowers ¾′—1′ in diameter, on slender densely villose pedicels in broad lax hairy mostly 8—15-flowered corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, covered with long white hairs, the lobes long, slender, acuminate, laciniately glandular-serrate, glabrous on the outer surface, villose on the inner surface; stamens 8—12; anthers faintly tinged with pink; styles 3—5. Fruit ripening and falling early in October, on short stout drooping slightly hairy pedicels, in 4—12-fruited clusters, short-obovoid, full and rounded at apex, bright orange-red marked by small pale dots, puberulous at the ends, ¾′—1′ in diameter; calyx little enlarged, with small spreading lobes dark red on the upper side, their tips often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thick, orange-yellow, somewhat acidulous, edible, sometimes made into jelly; nutlets 3—5, rounded at apex, acute at base, rounded and slightly grooved or ridged on the back, about ⅓′ long.