Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus aestivalis
forest hawthorn, passionate hawthorn, stolonbearing hawthorn
eastern mayhaw, May hawthorn
twigs: new growth greenish, glabrous, 1-year old deep reddish brown, 2-years old grayer;
thorns on twigs 2-years old blackish or dark gray, shiny, slender, 2.5–4 cm.
twigs: new growth reddish, glabrous, 1-year old dark brown (in late summer);
thorns on twigs 1-year old dark, ± shiny, older grayish, 2–4 cm.
petiole length 40–50% blade, eglandular;
blade ovate to ovate-deltate, 2–4(–5) cm, 1.2–1.4 times as long as wide, 40–60% mature size at anthesis, base broadly rounded to subtruncate or subcordate, lobes 4 per side, sinuses moderately shallow, lobe apex ca. 90 at tip, often less, margins serrate, teeth regular, 0.5–1 mm, with minute, caducous gland-tipped, veins 3 or 4(or 5) per side, apex acute, abaxial surface glabrous except along veins, adaxial finely appressed-pubescent young.
stipules broadly circinate, margins glandular;
petiole 3–8 mm, length 10–16% blade, winged distally;
blade ± dark green, elliptic to oblanceolate or narrowly so, 3–5 cm (sometimes much larger on extension shoots, then sometimes few-lobed, sometimes deeply so, even almost tripartite), lobes 0, margins entire proximally, serrulate to crenate in distal 1/2, usually eglandular, teeth tips sometimes with black glands, veins 4 or 5 per side, apex acute to subobtuse, abaxial surface glabrous except for tufts of usually pale gray (sometimes ± rufous) hair in lateral vein axils, sometimes also along midvein, adaxial ± shiny, scabrous or glabrous.
4–10-flowered;
branches glabrous;
bracteoles few, ± linear.
2–4-flowered umbels;
branches glabrous or sparsely long-pilose;
bracteoles narrow, margins sessile-glandular.
12–15 mm diam.;
hypanthium glabrous;
sepals 4–5 mm, margins ± entire or slightly glandular-serrate, abaxially glabrous;
stamens 10, anthers pink to purple;
styles 3–5.
12–30 mm diam.;
hypanthium glabrous;
sepal margins ± entire, glabrous;
anthers pink;
styles 4 or 5.
orange to red, or blotched green, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam.;
sepals spreading;
pyrenes 3–5, dorsally grooved.
red, sometimes yellow, 8–20 mm diam., shiny;
flesh edible;
sepals obtuse;
pyrenes 4 or 5.
Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus aestivalis
Crataegus iracunda ranges from Louisiana to South Carolina and Georgia, and to Virginia, but only at low altitudes. Nearly all records of C. iracunda north of the listed distribution are referable to C. macrosperma or to various species in ser. Populneae.
The distinguishing features of Crataegus iracunda are most evident when it is in flower. The species can be construed as a smaller, more southern, allopatric relative of C. macrosperma distinguished by smaller leaves (particularly at anthesis), more slender thorns, and harder, drier pomes. Its distribution is almost wholly to the south of or in Appalachia, at lower elevations than C. macrosperma. The nearest records of C. macrosperma to the Louisiana populations of C. iracunda are from the Arkansas Ozarks.
Crataegus iracunda has been confused with C. gattingeri (ser. Pruinosae) but is readily distinguished in flower by adaxial leaf pubescence, stamen number, and by lacking the usually attenuate terminal leaf lobes of the latter. However, in fruit, unless the filament bases can be counted, one is left with the less reliable feature of the terminal lobe shape. Confusion with the larger-leaved C. populnea (ser. Populneae) is perhaps possible, but the two species are essentially allopatric and their leaves differ markedly in size and texture.
Earlier attempts to segregate varieties based on leaf size are not taken up here but may have merit as the relatively numerous Louisiana (Crataegus drymophila) form has much smaller leaves than North Carolina specimens.
Variety brumalis (Ashe) Kruschke (Crataegus brumalis Ashe) with syntype material from near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is a different entity. Compared to C. iracunda, it has larger and differently shaped (often more or less truncate-based) leaves, proportionately larger at anthesis, and adaxially subglabrous, conspicuously glandular petioles, and larger flowers. This taxon (as a variety of C. iracunda) is primarily responsible for the northwards extension of the range of the latter species. In fact, north of the Mason-Dixon line, most of the specimens attributed to C. brumalis seen by the author appear to be forms of C. macrosperma.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Crataegus aestivalis is common in northern Florida and southern Georgia and continues up the coastal plain to New Bern, North Carolina, and west to Mississippi; it is scarce in the northern portion of its range.
Crataegus aestivalis is variable in flower and fruit size. Crataegus maloides has unusually large, and C. luculenta unusually small, flowers; C. cerasoides has large, late-ripening fruit. Crataegus fruticosa is distinguished by late anthesis, at nearly full leaf expansion, and could be mistaken for a form of C. crus-galli. Crataegus monantha is a dwarf form from northern Florida and might prove useful as a dwarfing stock for the mayhaw industry.
Crataegus aestivalis is widely used in the southern states for conserves.
The description of Crataegus aestivalis by Torrey and Gray, together with the distribution they ascribed to it, indicates that they included C. opaca. The type of C. elliptica Pursh (reputedly at BM or OXF) has not been located and that of C. lucida Elliott (at CHARL) has not been accessed; these two names may belong here. C. S. Sargent (1920) thoroughly discussed the typification of C. aestivalis, suggesting that C. elliptica and C. lucida represent the same species.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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