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Crataegus viridis L.

Modern name

Crataegus viridis L.

Synonyms

C. arborescens Ell.

A tree 20 to 35 ft high; young shoots glabrous; thorns up to 112 in. long, often absent. Leaves ovate or oval, always wedge-shaped at the base, the terminal part toothed, often shallowly lobed as well; 112 to 312 in. long, 34 to 212 in. wide; dark glossy green above, and when mature, quite glabrous, except for tufts of down in the vein-axils beneath; stalk 12 to 112 in. long. Flowers white, 34 in. across, borne in May and June in corymbs 112 to 2 in. across. Flower-stalk and calyx glabrous, except that the lobes of the latter are sometimes downy inside; stamens twenty, anthers pale yellow; styles two to five. Fruit globose, 14 to 13 in. diameter, bright red.

Native of the south-eastern United States. It grows well in cultivation, but is not one of the most attractive of thorns, the flowers, and especially the fruits not being abundant. It is the type species of a group of American thorns, one of which is:

C. nitida (Engelm.) Sarg. C. viridis var. nitida Engelm. – This differs in having ovate or narrowly obovate leaves; glandular-toothed calyx-lobes; fruit considerably larger, from broadly oval to globose, 58 in. long, covered with a glaucous bloom. S. United States.


Genus

Crataegus

Other species in the genus