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+ Crataegomespilus dardarii Simon-Louis

Modern name

+ Crataego-mespilus dardarii Simon-Louis

A deciduous tree probably 15 to 20 ft high when fully grown, of pendulous habit; branchlets downy and more or less spiny. Leaves oblong, oval or ovate, 112 to 4 in. long, 34 to 134 in. wide; quite entire or more or less very finely toothed, downy on both sides; stalk 18 in. long. Flowers white, 112 in. across, borne in corymbs as many as twelve together, each flower on a downy stalk 12 to 1 in. long; calyx with five narrow, pointed lobes 13 to 12 in. long, very downy. Fruit medlar-like, but smaller and in clusters.

A graft-hybrid between Crataegus monogyna and Mespilus germanica, but more nearly approaching the medlar (see above). On a tree at Kew which has flowered for several years past are three distinct types of growth. The bulk of the tree is + C. dardarii, as described above; but there are branches of ‘Jules d’Asnières’ (see below), and some of pure medlar, with its much larger leaves and solitary flowers and fruits. A tree at Aldenham produced a shoot and flowers of hawthorn.

cv ‘Jules d’Asnières’. – A small, deciduous, bushy-headed tree with pendulous branches, probably about 15 to 20 ft high ultimately. Shoots woolly, armed occasionally with hawthorn-like spines. Leaves varying in shape from obovate to broadly ovate; 112 to 3 in. long, 1 to 134 in. wide; some entire, others deeply lobed like those of the hawthorn, mealy-looking when young, covered with soft down beneath. Flowers in corymbs, similar in form to those of the hawthorn, but larger and with a downy calyx; petals white, rose-tinted with age. Fruit oblong, brown, downy, about the size of those of the hawthorn. A beautiful flowering tree. For its history see the introductory note. The name ‘Jules d’Asnières’ is the one originally given to it by the raisers, and therefore to be preferred to ‘Asnieresii’.


Genus

+ Crataegomespilus

Other species in the genus

[No species article available]