From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Leaves variable in size and shape, short-obovate, oval, rhombic, lance-oblong, or nearly orbicular and sometimes wider than long, mostly 2-6 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, rounded or pointed at the apex, gradually or sometimes abruptly, contracted at the base into slender, winged petioles, coarsely serrate with broad, shallow teeth for about two thirds the length of the blades, usually incised above the middle and with shallow, rounded or triangular lobes, or sometimes undivided, slightly scabrate above when young, glabrous at maturity, firm and with veins slightly impressed above; flowers 12-15 mm in diameter, usually 6-12 in small, compact, simple or slightly branched corymbs, on glabrous or sparsely villous pedicels; stamens about 20; anthers white or cream color; calyx lobes linear-lanceolate, entire or nearly so; fruit subglobose, 7-10 mm in diameter, dull red or russet, often irregularly blotched, with thin flesh, remaining hard and dry; nutlets usually 3. A small tree or often an arborescent shrub, up to 5-6 m high, with roughish dark gray bark and stout, ascending or spreading branches, usually sparingly armed with slender thorns, or sometimes nearly unarmed. Crataegus Margaretta is difficult to describe because of the great variability in the shape and size of the leaves and fruit, but it is a well marked species and it is easily recognized when once known in the field. There has been considerable difference of opinion as to the relationship of this species, some botanists placing it in the Punctatae group, or regarding it as the type of a distinct group, but it seems most nearly related to such species as Crataegus Dodgei, Crataegus chrysocarpa, and Crataegus rotundifolia, and it is therefore retained in the Rotundifoliae group in this treatment. General and frequent in Indiana, especially in the eastern and northern counties, growing in pastures, thickets, and borders of woods. In the north it is usually in dry, sandy or gravelly soil or in clay on terminal moraines and southward on rocky slopes.