Leaves oblong-ovate to elliptic or rarely to ovate, acute or acuminate at apex, gradually or abruptly cuneate or rounded at the nearly entire base, irregularly doubly serrate above with straight or incurved glandular teeth, and usually irregularly divided into 3 or 4 pairs of short broad acute or acuminate lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open late in April, and then subcoriaceous, pale yellow-green, and villose on the midrib with scattered pale caducous hairs, and at maturity lustrous, dark yellow-green above, pale below, 2′—3′ long, and 1½′—2′ wide, with a thin midrib, 5—7 pairs of thin light yellow veins and conspicuous reticulate veinlets; turning in the autumn bright yellow and red; petioles slender, glandular, more or less broadly winged toward the apex, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots oblong-ovate, concave-cuneate at base, often 3′ long and 2′ wide, their petioles broadly wing-margined to below the middle. Flowers nearly 1′ in diameter, on long thin slightly villose pedicels, in 2—5 usually 3-flowered simple corymbs, with coarsely glandular-serrate bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous or slightly villose, the lobes foliaceous, acute, coarsely glandular-serrate above the middle; stamens 20; anthers large, dark rose color; styles 3—5, usually 4, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of pale hairs. Fruit ripening and falling about the middle of September, often only a single fruit maturing from a flower-cluster, subglobose to short-oblong, rounded at the ends, yellow or orange-yellow, generally more or less flushed with red, marked by occasional large dark dots, ⅓′—½′ long; calyx prominent, with an elongated tube and closely appressed lobes; flesh yellow, thin and hard; nutlets 3—5, usually 4, about ¼′ long.
An intricately branched tree, rarely more than 20° high, with a tall trunk 6′—7′ in diameter, stout ascending branches forming a narrow or sometimes a round flat-topped head, and glabrous branchlets armed with thin straight or slightly curved dark chestnut-brown shining spines, ¾′—1½′ long; often a large shrub, with few or many stems.
Distribution. Rocky woods and bluffs in the foothill region of northwestern Georgia (cliffs of the Coosa River near Rome, Floyd County), southeastern Tennessee (near Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and Tracy City, Grundy County), and northeastern Alabama; very abundant in Alabama at Valley Head, De Kalb County, and on the low ridges extending southward to the neighborhood of Birmingham, Jefferson County.
XIII. PULCHERRIMÆ.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, their lobes acute or rounded; fruit bright red.116. [C. opima] (C). Leaves ovate to oval or obovate, their lobes acute; fruit orange-red.117. [C. robur] (C).
116. [Cratægus opima] Beadl.
Leaves oval to ovate or nearly orbicular, acute, gradually or abruptly narrowed and cuneate at the entire base, finely serrate above with incurved teeth, and usually divided above the middle into short acute, acuminate or rounded lobes, half grown when the flowers open the middle of April, and then glabrous with the exception of a few short caducous hairs on the midrib and veins, and at maturity light green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, 1½′ long, and 1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib, and 5 or 6 pairs of arcuate primary veins spreading to the point of the lobes; petioles narrowly winged at the apex, usually about ¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes rounded or nearly truncate at base and 1½′—2½′ long and broad. Flowers about ⅔′ in diameter, on short slender pedicels, in compact few-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes gradually narrowed from a broad base, acute, entire or sparingly glandular-serrate, tipped with dark red glands, glabrous on the outer surface, puberulous on the inner surface; stamens 20; anthers dark rose color; styles 3—5, surrounded at base by a narrow ring of snowy white tomentum. Fruit ripening about the 1st of October and then remaining on the branches for several weeks, on short stout pedicels, in compact few-fruited erect or drooping clusters, subglobose, often rather longer than broad, bright red, about ¼′ in diameter; calyx prominent, with a well-developed tube, and much enlarged closely appressed lobes often deciduous with the tube before the fruit becomes entirely ripe; flesh thin, yellow, dry and mealy; nutlets 3—5, thin, ⅛′ long.