XVIII. MACRACANTHÆ.
Tomentosæ Sarg.
CONSPECTUS OF THE ARBORESCENT SPECIES.
Leaves thin, with midrib and veins only slightly impressed on their upper surface; anthers rose color or red. Mature leaves pale pubescent below. Leaves ovate to ovate-oblong; fruit in erect clusters, obovoid, orange-red; stamens 20.140. [C. tomentosa] (A, C). Leaves ovate, oval, or obovate, in drooping clusters, globose to subglobose, bright red or orange-red; stamens 5—10.141. [C. Chapmanii] (A, C). Mature leaves glabrous (slightly pubescent on the midrib and veins below in 142). Stamens 20. Leaves elliptic to suborbicular, smooth above; fruit in drooping clusters, subglobose to short-oblong.142. [C. Gaultii] (A). Leaves elliptic, scabrate above; fruit in erect clusters, subglobose.143. [C. vegeta] (A). Stamens 10; leaves ovate, scabrate above; fruit short-oblong.144. [C. Deweyana] (A). Leaves subcoriaceous to coriaceous, with midrib and veins deeply impressed on their upper surface and pubescent below. Anthers rose color. Stamens 20. Leaves elliptic, acute at the ends; fruit globose.145. [C. succulenta] (A). Leaves broadly oval or obovate; fruit subglobose to short-oblong.146. [C. gemmosa] (A). Stamens 10. Leaves broad-obovate or oval; fruit globose, villose at the ends; calyx-lobes coarsely glandular-serrate.147. [C. illinoiensis] (A). Leaves broad-obovate to oval or rhombic; fruit subglobose; calyx-lobes entire.148. [C. integriloba] (A). Anthers yellow; stamens 10; leaves broad-obovate to elliptic or oval; fruit in erect clusters, globose.149. [C. macracantha] (A).
140. [Cratægus tomentosa] L.
Leaves ovate, oblong-ovate, rhombic or elliptic, acute, acuminate or rarely rounded at apex, gradually narrowed to the cuneate entire base, sharply and usually doubly serrate above with broad spreading usually glandular teeth, and often divided above the middle into several short lateral lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open from the 1st to the middle of June, and at maturity thin and firm, gray-green, coated below with pale persistent pubescence, puberulous or ultimately glabrous above, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, 2′—5′ long, and 1′—3′ wide, with a broad midrib and slender primary veins; turning brilliant orange and scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles stout, glandular, wing-margined, ½′—¾′ in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes broad-obovate to semiorbicular, rounded and abruptly short-pointed at apex, rounded at base, and 3′—4′ long and wide; more often oblong-obovate, acuminate, and 5′—6′ in length. Flowers ½′ in diameter, on slender villose pedicels, in villose corymbs; calyx-tube obconic, hoary-tomentose, the lobes lanceolate, acute, coarsely or pinnately serrate, usually glandular, stamens 20; anthers pale rose color; styles 2—5. Fruit ripening in October, on slender erect pubescent pedicels, in broad many-fruited clusters, obovoid or rarely subglobose, ½′ in diameter, erect, dull orange-red, translucent when fully ripe, mostly persistent on the branches until the following spring; flesh thick, orange-yellow, sweet and succulent; nutlets about ¼′ long and broad, rounded at the ends, the ventral cavities broad and deep.
A tree, 15°—20° high, with a trunk 5′—6′ in diameter, covered with smooth pale gray or dark brown furrowed bark, slender spreading often nearly horizontal smooth gray branches forming a wide flat head, and slender branchlets covered when they first appear with thick hoary tomentum, becoming dark orange color and puberulous in their first winter, and ashy gray in their second season, and unarmed, or armed with occasional slender straight dull ashy gray or very rarely bright chestnut-brown spines 1′—1½′ long.
Distribution. Near Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, westward through New York to southwestern Ontario, through Ohio, southern Michigan, Indiana and Illinois to central Minnesota and southward to Pennsylvania and along the Appalachian Mountains to northeastern Georgia, and to central Iowa, northeastern Missouri to the valley of the Meramec River, and to eastern Kansas; near Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee; in the neighborhood of Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia; and in Dallas County, Alabama (R. S. Cocks).
Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the gardens of western Europe.