Addisonia 67 



(Plate 154) 



CRATAEGUS CALPODENDRON 

 Pear Thorn 



Native of the eastern United States 



Family MalacEAE Apple Family 



Crataegus tomentosa Du Roi, Harbk. Baumz. 183. 1771. Not Crataegus tomen- 



tosa L. 1753. 

 Mespilus Calpodendron Ehrh. Beitr. 2: 67. 1788. 

 Crataegus Calpodendron Medic. Gesch. Bot. 83. 1793. 

 Crataegus Chapmani Ashe, Bot. Gaz. 28: 270. 1898. 



Usually a tree up to twenty feet tall, its widely spreading branches 

 forming a flat head, or sometimes only a shrub. The branchlets 

 are at first tomentose, later becoming glabrous, and are commonly 

 unarmed, or sometimes with slender straight spines an inch or two 

 long. The nearly globular winter-buds have their protecting scales 

 of a chestnut-brown color and ciliate on the margins. The leaf- 

 blades are ovate, ovate-oblong, or rhombic-ovate, one and a half to 

 three inches long and one to three inches wide; they are rather 

 abruptly contracted below into the petiole and acute or acuminate 

 at the apex; they are gray-green, turning scarlet or a brihiant orange 

 in the autumn, with a pale persistent pubescence on the lower surface, 

 puberulous and ultimately glabrous on the upper surface; the 

 margins are commonly incisely lobed and are usually doubly serrate, 

 except at the base. The flowers, about a half inch in diameter, 

 are in broad flat-topped clusters which are pubescent and furnished 

 with lanceolate bracts. The calyx-tube, or hypanthium, is obconic 

 and tomentose. The persistent sepals, reflexed after flowering 

 time, are lanceolate, acuminate, glandular-lanciniate, and equal or 

 somewhat exceed the erose white petals. There are ten to twenty 

 stamens, with small pink anthers, and usually two or three styles. 

 The fruit is pear-shaped or ellipsoid, rarely nearly globose, up to a 

 half inch broad, orange-red or red, the flesh glutinous. The seeds 

 have deep pits on their ventral surfaces. 



This is a desirable decorative plant on account of the persistent 



fruit, which usually remains on the branches until the following 



spring, retaining essentially its bright color. The few spines also 



make it less aggressive than most species, a character appreciated 



by those who have tried to make an intimate acquaintance with 



some of the thorns. It is commonly found growing wild along forest 



borders or in the neighborhood of streams, from central New York 



and northeastern New Jersey to Minnesota and Missoturi, with an 



extension southward in the mountains to northern Georgia. The 



