536 



TREES OF NORTH AMERICA 



140. Crataegus tomentosa L. 



Leaves ovate, oblong-ovate, rhombic or elliptic, acute, acuminate or rarely rounded at 

 apex, gradually narrowed to the cuneate entire base, sharply and usually doubly serrate 

 above with broad spreading usually glandular teeth, and often divided above the middle into 

 several short lateral lobes, nearly fully grown when the flowers open from the 1st to the 

 middle of June, and at maturity thin and firm, gray-green, coated below with pale persistent 

 pubescence, puberulous or ultimately glabrous above, conspicuously reticulate-venulose, 

 2'-5' long, and l'-3' wide, with a broad midrib and slender primary veins; turning brilliant 

 orange and scarlet in the autumn before falling; petioles stout, glandular, wing-margined, 

 |'-f in length; leaves at the end of vigorous shoots sometimes broad-obovate to semi- 

 orbicular, rounded and abruptly short-pointed at apex, rounded at base, and 3'-4' long 

 and wide; more often oblong-obovate, acuminate, and 5 '-6' in length. Flowers -|' in diam- 

 eter, on slender villose pedicels, in villose corymbs; calyx-tube obconic, hoary-tomentose, 



Fig. 492 



the lobes lanceolate, acute, coarsely or pinnately serrate, usually glandular, stamens 20: 

 anthers pale rose color; styles 2-5. Fruit ripening in October, on slender erect pubescent 

 pedicels, in broad many-fruited clusters, obovoid or rarely subglobose, \' in diameter, erect, 

 dull orange-red, translucent when fully ripe, mostly persistent on the branches until the 

 following spring; flesh thick, orange-yellow, sweet and succulent; nutlets about \' long and 

 broad, rounded at the ends, the ventral cavities broad and deep. 



A tree, 15-20 high, with a trunk 5'-6' in diameter, covered with smooth pale gray or 

 dark brown furrowed bark, slender spreading often nearly horizontal smooth gray branches 

 forming a wide flat head, and slender branchlets covered when they first appear with thick 

 hoary tomentum, becoming dark orange color and puberulous in their first winter, and 

 ashy gray in their second season, and unarmed, or armed with occasional slender straight 

 dull ashy gray or very rarely bright chestnut-brown spines \'-\\' long. 



Distribution. Near Troy, Rensselaer County, New York, westward through New York 

 to southwestern Ontario, through Ohio, southern Michigan, Indiana and Illinois to central 

 Minnesota and southward to Pennsylvania and along the Appalachian Mountains to north- 

 eastern Georgia, and to central Iowa, northeastern Missouri to the valley of the Meramec 

 River, and to eastern Kansas; near Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee; in the neigh- 

 borhood of Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia; and in Dallas County, Alabama (R. S. 

 Cocks). 



Occasionally cultivated as an ornamental tree in the gardens of western Europe. 



