135. [Cratægus apiifolia] Michx. Parsley Haw.
Leaves broad-ovate to orbicular, acute at apex, truncate, slightly cordate or cuneate at the broad base, and pinnately 5—7-cleft with shallow acute or deep wide sinuses, and incisely lobed with broad or acute segments serrate toward the apex with spreading glandular teeth, when they unfold pilose above with long pale hairs, and mostly glabrous below, fully grown when the flowers open late in March or early in April, and at maturity thin, bright green and rather lustrous above, paler and glabrous or pilose below on the prominent midrib and primary veins, or on occasional plants pubescent on both surfaces, ⅔′—1½′ wide; petioles slender, pubescent, becoming glabrous, 1′—1½′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots often divided nearly to the midrib, with foliaceous lunate coarsely glandular-serrate short-stalked stipules sometimes ½′ long. Flowers ½′ in diameter, on long slender hairy pedicels, in crowded densely villose usually 10—12-flowered corymbs; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous or covered with long matted pale hairs, the lobes lanceolate, acute, glabrous, usually glandular-serrate, often tinged with red toward the apex; stamens 20; anthers bright rose color; styles 1—3. Fruit ripening in October and persistent on the branches until the beginning of winter, short-oblong, bright scarlet, ⅓′ long; calyx prominent, the lobes elongated, reflexed, often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thin; nutlets 1—3, rounded at the ends, about ⅓′ long.
A tree, occasionally 20° high, with a trunk rarely 6′—8′ in diameter, branches spreading nearly at right angles and forming a wide irregular open head, and slender more or less zigzag often contorted branchlets covered when they first appear with long pale hairs, light red or pale orange-brown and usually puberulous in their first winter, ultimately light brown or ashy gray, and armed with stout straight chestnut-brown spines 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Borders of streams and swamps or in hummocks in Pine-barrens in the coast and Piedmont regions of the south Atlantic States from southeastern Virginia to Georgia; in western Florida south to Lafayette County (near Old Town), north-central and southern Alabama, Louisiana and the coast region of Texas to the valley of the lower Colorado River (low woods, Peyton’s Creek, Matagorda County), and through Arkansas to eastern Oklahoma (Page, Le Flore County) and to southeastern Missouri; most abundant and of its largest size in southern Arkansas and western Louisiana.
136. [Cratægus Phænopyrum] Med. Washington Thorn.
Cratægus cordata Ait.
Leaves broad-ovate to triangular, acute or acuminate, truncate, broad-cuneate, rounded or cordate at the entire base, coarsely serrate above with acute spreading often gland-tipped teeth, and more or less incisely lobed or often 3-lobed, tinged with red when they unfold and sparingly pilose above with long pale caducous hairs, fully grown when the flowers open at the end of May, and at maturity thin and firm, dark green and lustrous above, pale and rarely pubescent on the lower surface, especially on the conspicuous orange-colored midrib and primary veins, 1½′—2′ long, and 1′—1½′ wide; turning late in the autumn bright scarlet and orange; petioles slender, terete, glabrous, ¾′—1½′ in length. Flowers on slender pedicels, in rather compact many-flowered glabrous corymbs; calyx-tube broadly obconic, glabrous, the lobes short, nearly triangular, entire, abruptly contracted at apex into a minute point, glabrous on the outer, pubescent on the inner surface, ciliate on the margins; stamens 20; anthers rose color; styles 2—5, surrounded at base by conspicuous tufts of pale hairs. Fruit ripening in September and October and persistent on the branches until the spring of the following year, depressed-globose, scarlet, lustrous, ¼′ in diameter; calyx deciduous from the ripe fruit, leaving a wide circular scar surrounding the persistent erect tips of the carpels; nutlets 3—5, narrowed and acute at base, broad and rounded at apex, about ⅛′ long.
A tree, 20°—30° high, with a straight trunk sometimes a foot in diameter, generally dividing 4°—5° above the ground into slender usually upright branches forming an oblong or occasionally round-topped head, slender zigzag glabrous bright chestnut-brown lustrous branchlets, becoming dark gray or reddish brown, and armed with slender sharp spines 1½′—2′ long; often much smaller, and sometimes a broad spreading bush.