Crataegus (sect. Crataegus) ser. Crataegus

Treatment appears in FNA Volume 9. Treatment on page 496. Mentioned on page 495, 497, 498, 636.

Shrubs or trees, 40–100[–120] dm. Stems: trunk bark freshly exposed ± orange, older gray-brown, flattened-scaly, exfoliating in elongate strips; compound thorns on trunks usually absent; thorns on twigs determinate or indeterminate. Leaves deciduous; petiole length 30–50% blade; blade broadly elliptic to obovate or ovate to deltate, lobes 1–3 per side, sinuses shallow or deep, venation craspedodromous, veins to lobes and sinuses; blades on extension shoots sometimes fully pinnate. Inflorescences 3–15-flowered; branches glabrous [to lanate]; bracteoles caducous, ± linear, small, membranous, margins entire or denticulate or with small protuberances or pegs bearing terminal, small glands. Flowers 8–22 mm diam.; sepals narrowly triangular; stamens [10–]20, filaments long, anthers pink to purple; styles 1–3. Pomes bright to dark red [black], ± orbicular to ± cylindric, 6–14 mm diam., glabrous [to tomentose]; flesh yellowish; sepal remnants persistent; pyrenes 1–3, dorsally shallowly grooved, sides grooved [plane].

Distribution

Introduced; Europe, w Asia, n Africa, introduced also in South America, s Africa, Pacific Islands (New Zealand), Australia.

Discussion

Species ca. 25 (2 in the flora).

Crataegus oxyacantha Linnaeus is a rejected name of this series that is suppressed by C. rhipidophylla Gandoger. There are several instances of its misapplication in North America to C. monogyna.

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Leaf lobe apices obtuse, sinuses ± shallow; styles 2 or 3. Crataegus laevigata
1 Leaf lobe apices acute, sinuses usually deep; style 1. Crataegus monogyna