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

Leaves ovate, 3-7 cm long, 2.5-6 cm wide, acute or short-acuminate at the apex, abruptly narrowed or rounded at the base, or sometimes truncate or subcordate on shoots, sharply serrate nearly to the base, usually with 2-4 pairs of obscure or shallow, triangular, lateral lobes, firm, sparsely short-villous or scabrate on the upper surface when young, glabrous at maturity; petioles slender, from a third to half the length of the blades, eglandular or with a few glands; flowers 18-20 mm in diameter, in mostly 6-10-flowered, glabrous, simple or slightly compound corymbs; stamens 10 or fewer; anthers pink or rose; fruit usually oblong or obovoid, 8-10 mm thick, 10-14 mm long, becoming crimson or orange red, with dark or russet blotches, flesh becoming mellow; calyx small and sessile or nearly so ; nutlets 3-5. A tree up to 6-7 m high, or often a stout shrub, with gray, slightly scaly bark, ascending or spreading branches, and stoutish, often flexuous, glabrous branchlets armed with numerous, long, curved thorns, This species grows in fields and thickets in rocky or well drained soil and in dry soil on wooded slopes.