A tree, occasionally 25° high, with a tall trunk 10′—12′ in diameter, covered with thin bark separating into large flakes broken into small loose dark red-brown scales, stout branches forming a wide symmetrical head, and slightly zigzag branchlets at first dark green and villose, soon becoming glabrous, chestnut-brown and lustrous, bright orange-brown during their second year, and armed with thick straight or somewhat curved chestnut-brown spines often 1½′ long.
Distribution. Southern New Hampshire, through southern Vermont to western Massachusetts and eastern New York; through central and western New York and southern Ontario to northeastern Ohio (Plymouth, Ashtabula County), the southern peninsula of Michigan and northeastern Illinois.
98. [Cratægus lobulata] Sarg. Red Haw.
Leaves oval to oblong-ovate, acute at apex, broad-cuneate or rounded at the entire base, sharply and often doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and deeply divided into numerous narrow acute or acuminate lobes spreading or pointing to the apex or to the base of the leaf, when they first appear and until after the opening of the flowers during the last week in May covered above with short soft pale hairs and slightly pubescent below on the slender midrib, and thin primary veins arching to the point of the lobes, and at maturity thin, dark yellow-green and glabrous on the upper surface, paler on the lower surface, with occasional short white hairs toward the base of the midrib, 2½′—3½′ long and 2′—2½′ wide; petioles slender, nearly terete, at first tomentose, particularly at the base, becoming pubescent or nearly glabrous and bright red, 1′—1½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots broad-ovate, rounded or truncate at the broad base, divided into numerous acuminate lateral lobes, often 3½′—4′ long and 3′—3½′ wide. Flowers ¾′ in diameter, on elongated slender pedicels, in rather compact many-flowered tomentose corymbs, with linear-lanceolate glandular-serrate bright red bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, or villose toward the base, dark red, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, glabrous, coarsely glandular-serrate with large dark red stipitate glands; stamens usually 10, occasionally 5—10; anthers small, dark reddish purple; styles 3—5, sometimes surrounded at the base by a ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening and falling early in October, on short stout pedicels, in erect compact tomentulose clusters, short-oblong, somewhat flattened at the rounded ends, bright crimson, very lustrous, marked by occasional small white dots, about ¾′ long and ⅝′ in diameter; calyx little enlarged, the lobes small, lanceolate, coarsely glandular-serrate, tomentose on the upper surface, erect and incurved, persistent; flesh thick, yellow, sweet and juicy; nutlets 3—5, thin, dark colored, ridged and often grooved on the back, ¼′ long.
A tree, occasionally 35° high, with a straight trunk often a foot in diameter, covered with dark red-brown fissured bark broken into small thick plate-like scales, stout generally ascending branches forming an open usually narrow irregular head, and slender branchlets, dark green and covered with matted pale hairs when they first appear, becoming bright chestnut-brown and very lustrous during their first season, and light orange-brown the following year, and armed with many stout nearly straight chestnut-brown spines rarely more than 1′ in length.
Distribution. Burlington, Chittenden County, Vermont, and southward through the Champlain valley to Crown Point, Essex County and to the neighborhood of Albany, New York; western Massachusetts to southern Connecticut (Stratford, Fairfield County); common.
99. [Cratægus pedicellata] Sarg.
Leaves broad-ovate or occasionally obovate or rhombic, acute or acuminate, broad-cuneate or rounded at the entire base, coarsely often doubly serrate above with spreading glandular teeth, and divided above the middle into 4 or 5 pairs of short acute or acuminate lobes, nearly two thirds grown when the flowers open during the last week in May, and then roughened above by short rigid pale hairs and glabrous below, and at maturity membranaceous, dark rich green and scabrate on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 3′—4′ long, and 2′—3′ wide, with a slender midrib, and thin remote primary veins arching to the point of the lobes; petioles slender, nearly terete, glandular with minute scattered dark glands, at first villose, becoming glabrous, 1½′—2½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes truncate or slightly cordate at base, more deeply lobed, often 3′—4′ long and 3′ wide. Flowers ½′ in diameter, on long thin pedicels, in loose lax many-flowered slightly villose corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes broad, acute, very coarsely glandular-serrate; stamens usually 10; anthers rose color; styles 5, surrounded at base by a conspicuous ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening and falling during September, on long slender pedicels, in few-fruited drooping glabrous clusters, obovoid until nearly fully grown, becoming short-oblong when fully ripe, rounded at the ends, bright scarlet, lustrous, marked by numerous small dark dots, ¾′ long, and ½′—⅝′ in diameter; calyx large and conspicuous, the lobes much enlarged, coarsely serrate, and usually erect and incurved; flesh pale, thin, dry and mealy; nutlets 5, narrowed and acute at the ends, rounded and deeply grooved on the back, about ⅓′ long.