Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus quaesita
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.
twigs: new growth ± densely appressed-white-pubescent, 1-year old gray-brown to purple-brown, older gray, ± slender;
thorns on twigs usually present, straight, 1–2-years old purple-brown to 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 length 15–20% blade, densely pubescent, glandular at least young;
blade narrowly to broadly cuneate to obtrullate, 1.5–3 cm, ± stiff or ± floppy, base ± cuneate, lobes 1 or 2 per side, subterminal, small, lobe apex acute, on extension shoots often deeply incised, margins entire, sometimes obscurely crenate-serrate apically, gland-dotted young, veins 1–4 per side (narrowly diverging, exiting beyond widest part of leaf), apex acute to subacute, abaxial surface slightly pubescent, glabrescent, veins conspicuously pubescent, adaxial often densely pubescent at first, glabrescent, veins sparsely pubescent.
4–10-flowered;
branches glabrous;
bracteoles few, ± linear.
1–3(or 4)-flowered;
branches densely appressed-white-pubescent;
bracteoles linear, margins sessile-glandular, adaxially 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.
10–13 mm diam.;
hypanthium white-pubescent;
sepals narrowly triangular, 4 mm, margins glandular, abaxially sparsely pubescent;
petals elliptic or ± circular;
anthers cream;
styles 3 or 4.
orange to red, or blotched green, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam.;
sepals spreading;
pyrenes 3–5, dorsally grooved.
usually reddish orange to red, suborbicular, 8–10 mm diam., glabrescent to pubescent;
sepal remnants none or reflexed;
pyrenes 3 or 4(or 5).
Crataegus iracunda
Crataegus quaesita
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 quaesita is common in north-central Florida. The protologue by Beadle describes the anthers as purple, not seen since. The species is distinguished by narrow, more or less obtrullate leaves with a couple of more or less sharp lobes distally. The C. viaria form, somewhat like a very elongated C. egens, has less sharp lobes. Crataegus laxa, a form with very little terminal lobing, forms a link with the C. vicana form of C. condigna. Crataegus meridiana (subser. Robustae) is another similar form but more robust and with larger flowers.
A striking local form, mainly from near Jacksonville, Florida, and from adjacent Georgia, is probably distinct. Its mature leaves, 2–3 cm, are much more sharply lobed and sharp-tipped than in Crataegus quaesita; the leaves at anthesis are unusually small, only 1 cm, because they are very little expanded (in C. quaesita the leaves then are nearly full size). The plant is very thorny, the extension-shoot leaves are 3 cm wide, more or less isodiametric, with deep, narrow sinuses, presenting a C. marshallii-like appearance.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
LA Plants
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
