Crataegus berberifolia
Crataegus sheridana
barberry hawthorn, barberry-leaf hawthorn
Great Plains hawthorn
twigs: new growth orange-brown or green tinged with red, ± pubescent, 1-year old brown, older gray;
thorns on twigs ± straight or recurved, 2-years old shiny black to chestnut brown, fine or stouter, (2–)3–4(–6.5) cm.
twigs: new growth color not recorded, pubescent, 1-year old light brown to olive-tan or mid brown, 2-years old dark gray or reddish brown overlaid dark gray, older gray;
thorns on twigs usually numerous, usually recurved, 2-years old very dark, shiny red-brown, slender to moderately thick, (2.5–)3–5(–7) cm.
petiole 4–6 mm, length 13–18% blade, glabrescent, eglandular;
blade narrowly obovate to oblanceolate, (2.5–)3(–4) cm, coriaceous, base narrowly cuneate, lobes 0, margins finely crenate or serrate except at base, or only beyond widest part, venation craspedodromous, veins 4–6 per side, apex subacute to obtuse, lustrous, abaxial surface ± densely pilose on veins, sometimes pubescent on surface, adaxial hairy young, glabrescent or becoming scabrous.
petiole length 40–50% blade, pubescent (especially in adaxial sulcus), ± densely sessile-glandular;
blade sometimes broadly ovate or suborbiculate, sometimes ± ovate, elliptic-ovate to ovate, 3.5–5(–6) cm, nearly full grown at flowering, ± thin, base cuneate, broadly cuneate, or subtruncate to subcordate, lobes (3 or)4(or 5) per side, sinuses shallow, LII 5–15%, lobe apex acute (except where blades elliptic-ovate to ovate, then lobes deeper, LII 15–30%, lobe apex subacute), margins with subacute teeth, veins 3 or 4 per side, apex acute to obtuse, abaxial surface glabrous, veins glabrous or pubescent young, adaxial densely appressed-scabrous-pubescent young (variably persistent).
8–12-flowered;
branches densely pubescent;
bracteoles linear, margins glandular.
5–15-flowered;
branches ± densely pubescent;
bracteoles pallid, narrow, margins sessile-glandular.
10–20 mm diam.;
hypanthium villous or glabrous;
sepals 3–5 mm, margins entire, abaxially glabrous;
stamens 10 or 20, anthers cream or pink;
styles 2 or 3.
14–16 mm diam.;
hypanthium proximally ± tomentose, medially densely short-pubescent;
sepals greenish, triangular, length not recorded, margins glandular-serrate, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pubescent;
stamens 10, anthers ivory;
styles 4 or 5.
reddish to yellow, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam., glabrous;
sepals erose or patent;
pyrenes 2 or 3.
1–6 in infructescences, bright red, broadly ellipsoid to suborbicular, 9–11 mm tall, pubescent, rarely glabrate;
sepals ± spreading to reflexed;
pyrenes 3 or 4, sides ± roughened with shallow, irregular pitting or diagonal scarring.
Crataegus berberifolia
Crataegus sheridana
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
Crataegus berberifolia is widespread from Texas to Missouri, Florida, and Virginia; it is particularly abundant in Louisiana.
Crataegus berberifolia is little differentiated from some forms of C. crus-galli, except in indumentum; it has relatively small and less variably shaped leaves. Its distribution is quite different. Intermediates with hairy leaves and glabrous inflorescences or nearly glabrous leaves and hairy inflorescences may represent hybrids with C. crus-galli (where they might be reached in the key). Such a situation is found in C. araioclada. Abrasion of the adaxial leaf pubescence may occur, rendering identification more difficult with fruiting material. Crataegus berberifolia has a plethora of yellow and orange-fruited forms, particularly from southern Louisiana. Crataegus fera and C. tersa are red-fruited, C. crocina yellow. The fruit color in the type is unknown; E. J. Palmer (in specimen annotation) called it yellow-orange. A form with exceptionally white-tomentose leaves near Copenhagen, Louisiana, is probably this species. Crataegus regalis var. paradoxa (Sargent) E. J. Palmer, from Missouri and adjacent Kansas and Arkansas, is probably a hybrid between the deeply serrated 'regalis' leaf form of C. crus-galli and a form of C. berberifolia. Two common forms of C. berberifolia occur, treated here as varieties: var. engelmannii with ten pink anthers and var. berberifolia with 20 cream anthers. Forms with 20 pink or ten cream anthers also occur sporadically.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Crataegus sheridana occurs only east of the Rocky Mountains and is abundant in the Cypress Hills of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Collections from the montane islands of Montana are also known. Until confusion with the superficially similar C. chrysocarpa of the Great Plains and Prairies is cleared up in all the relevant herbaria, we will have an incomplete knowledge of the distribution of C. sheridana; however, it is widespread in the Great Plains region. Its plants are usually taller than sympatric C. chrysocarpa and also C. macracantha.
Crataegus sheridana has superficial resemblances to the C. chrysocarpa group; it is distinguished by its pitted pyrenes and usually larger leaves. In the Cypress Hills, where this species has the shortest thorns of any hawthorn in the red-fruited group, it is further distinguished from most specimens of the C. chrysocarpa group by the densely hairy to tomentose inflorescence branches and hypanthia and by its leaf shape. Collections from the Cypress Hills indicate that form of C. sheridana to be peculiarly round-leaved with pallid bracteoles; Montana forms have longer thorns, longer, more acutely lobed leaves, more elliptic-ovate to ovate blades, and red-brown rather than pallid bracteoles.
In all likelihood, Crataegus sheridana represents a series of hybrid descendants between C. chrysocarpa and C. macracantha. The reasons for ignoring its existence over a long period were discussed by J. B. Phipps et al. (2007).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Stamens 20, anthers usually cream; flowers 16–20 mm diam. | var. berberifolia |
1. Stamens 10, anthers usually pink; flowers 10–15 mm diam. | var. engelmannii |
KS Wildflowers
LA Plants
MO Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
MN Wildflowers
PNW Herbaria
