Crataegus biltmoreana

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

Leaves ovate-elliptic or nearly orbicular, mostly 3-8 cm long and 2.5-6 cm wide, abruptly or acutely pointed at the apex, abruptly cuneate or rounded at the base, and usually slightly decurrent on slender (1-3 cm long), glandular petioles, coarsely serrate nearly to the base, the lower teeth glandular or gland-tipped, usually incised with 1-3 pairs of short, triangular lobes, thin, dull yellowish green, short-villous or scabrate above and pubescent at least on the veins beneath; flowers 18-22 mm in diameter, in compact, nearly simple, 3-7-flowered, villous corymbs; stamens about 10; anthers pale yellow; calyx lobes villous, conspicuously glandular-serrate or pectinate; fruit subglobose or slightly attenuate at the base, 10-15 mm in diameter, with a large, shallow calyx, pubescent, bronze green or orange red, more or less blotched with russet or brown; nutlets 3-5.

A stout shrub 1-4 m high, with brownish gray, scaly bark, ascending or spreading branches, and stout branchlets at first villous but soon becoming glabrous, olive green or brown the first season, later becoming gray and usually abundantly armed with long, slender thorns.

This has been confused with Cratageus intricata Lange, but examination of specimens from the type tree of that species, cultivated in the Botanic Garden at Copenhagen, Denmark, and sent us by A. Lange, shows it to be the much commoner glabrous plant described under number 11 [Craetagus intricata].

Rare in Indiana and known only from Lawrence and Vermillion Counties.