Leaves broad-ovate or oval, acute, rounded or subcordate or narrowed and concave-cuneate at the entire base, coarsely often doubly serrate above with straight glandular teeth, and more or less incisely lobed with acuminate lateral lobes, more than half grown when the flowers open about the middle of May and then pale green and glabrous with the exception of a few caducous hairs on the upper side of the base of the midrib, and at maturity dark green above, paler below, 1½′—2′ long, and 1½′—2′ wide; petioles stout, conspicuously glandular above the base, wing-margined at the apex, glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers about ¾′ in diameter, on slender glabrous pedicels, in compact 3—7-flowered simple corymbs, with conspicuously glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes broad, acuminate, laciniately cut toward the apex, and glandular with stipitate glands; stamens 10; anthers pale rose color; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by tufts of pale hairs. Fruit ripening late in September or in October, subglobose, usually angled, red or russet-red, about ½′ in diameter; calyx little enlarged, with spreading or reflexed lobes; flesh thin, dry and mealy; nutlets 3—5, broad and rounded at base, rounded at the slightly narrowed apex, prominently ridged on the back, with a broad grooved ridge, about 5/16′ long.
A tree, often 25° high, with a trunk 4′—7′ in diameter and sometimes 10°—12° long, covered with gray or often dark brown scaly bark, stout spreading or ascending branches, and thick glabrous red-brown branchlets armed with thin straight shining spines ½′ long, becoming much longer and branched on the trunk and large branches.
Distribution. Southwestern Virginia, through western North Carolina to eastern Tennessee; usually at altitudes between 2000° and 3000°; common on wooded slopes with Oaks, Hickories, and Pines.
114. [Cratægus venusta] Beadl.
Leaves oval to ovate or occasionally to oblong-ovate, acute, gradually or abruptly narrowed and cuneate or rounded at the entire base, finely serrate above with usually incurved glandular teeth, and frequently slightly and irregularly divided above the middle into 1—3 pairs of short broad acute lobes, when they unfold dark bronze color, with a few scattered pale caducous hairs on the upper surface, about half grown when the flowers open from the 20th to the end of April, and then yellow-green, smooth and glabrous, and at maturity dark dull green above, pale below, 2½′ long, and 1½′ wide, with a stout midrib and 4—7 pairs of thin primary veins; late in the autumn turning, especially those on leading shoots deep orange or scarlet; petioles stout, glandular, more or less winged above, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots generally broad-ovate, rounded at base, deeply lobed with broad lobes, and often 3½′ long and 3′ wide. Flowers 1′ in diameter, on short pedicels, in 4—9-flowered compact corymbs, their bracts and bractlets like the inner bud-scales coarsely glandular-serrate and bright red before falling; calyx-tube broadly obconic, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, coarsely glandular-serrate often only below the middle; stamens 15—20, usually 15—17; anthers small, pale yellow; styles 3—5, surrounded at the base by a ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling from the 1st to the middle of October, on stout pedicels often 1′ long, in few-fruited clusters, short-oblong, rounded at the ends, dull red, often with a bright russet face, and marked by occasional large dark dots; calyx prominent, with a long tube, and spreading lobes often deciduous before the fruit ripens; flesh thick, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3—5, narrow and acute at base, broad, about ¼′ long.
A bushy tree, often 25° high, with a short trunk a foot in diameter, furnished like the large branches with innumerable stout much-branched spines frequently 6′ long, and slender nearly straight glabrous dark chestnut-brown branchlets, armed with many stout straight or slightly curved dark chestnut-brown shining spines frequently pointing toward the base of the branch, and 1½′—2½′ long.
Distribution. Open Oak and Hickory-woods on the dry slopes of Red Mountain in the southern part of the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, Alabama.