Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus egens
forest hawthorn, passionate hawthorn, stolonbearing 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.
plants seldom flowering at less than 1 m;
twigs: new growth white-canescent, 1-year old purple-brown, older darker or grayer, slender;
thorns on twigs sometimes absent, straight or slightly recurved, 1–2-years old blackish to deep gray, fine, 1–2 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.
petiole very slender, length 25–50% blade, winged distally, pubescent, glandular;
blade short obtrullate to broadly obovate, 1–2(–3) cm (widest in distal 1/2, length-width mostly less than 1.4:1), thin, base cuneate to slightly rounded, lobes 1 or 2 per side distally, short, lobe apex usually subacute, margins obscurely crenate, sometimes crenate-serrate in distal 1/2, teeth glandular, veins 1 or 2 per side (exiting at or beyond at widest part), apex subacute, not glossy, surfaces sparsely hairy young, abaxial surface soon glabrate except on veins.
4–10-flowered;
branches glabrous;
bracteoles few, ± linear.
1- or 2-flowered;
branches densely appressed white-pubescent;
bracteoles few, linear, margins sessile-glandular, adaxially thin short-pubescent.
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.
12–16 mm diam.;
hypanthium white-tomentose;
sepals triangular, 2–3 mm, margins glandular, abaxially pubescent;
anthers ivory;
styles 3.
orange to red, or blotched green, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam.;
sepals spreading;
pyrenes 3–5, dorsally grooved.
deep, dull yellow, sometimes with red cheek, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam., glabrous;
sepals appressed, sometimes late circumscissile;
pyrenes 3.
Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus egens
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 egens is locally common in north-central Florida and Georgia with outliers occurring in Clark and Henry counties, Alabama, and Jasper County, South Carolina.
The long-petiolate leaves of Crataegus egens are very small and short-obtrullate to broadly obovate, thus proportionally wide. There is some variation in leaf lobing from acute to obtuse and even obscure. An additional characteristic of this species is the way in which extension-shoot leaves may flare outward toward the apex, their obtuse and large terminal end being quite deeply and somewhat irregularly lobed. Specimens with more elongated (1.4–1.6:1) leaves but more or less typically shaped distal ends may be referred to C. cirrata Beadle and are somewhat intermediate with C. floridana. Similar forms with leaves obovate-cuneate, lobes virtually absent, very obtuse and strongly crenate terminally but of uncertain taxonomic status, may key here. Uncommon short specimens of C. egens may be distinguished from C. lepida by leaves of that species being coriaceous and shiny with lobes almost or entirely absent.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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