Flora of North America species comparison

Varieties 6 (6 in the flora).

Crataegus pruinosa extends from Arkansas to Wisconsin, through the southern Great Lakes to southern New England, and, in the south, mainly in the Appalachians to northern Georgia.

In the north of its range, Crataegus pruinosa is mainly a shrub of open successional habitats but in the south may commonly be a taller tree of open or thin woodlands.

Many hawthorns have a little waxy bloom on their pomes; it is particularly prominent on Crataegus pruinosa and C. cognata compared to others. Some authors include in C. pruinosa their white-anthered counterparts, here assigned to C. cognata. Whereas C. pruinosa characteristically has entire or subentire sepal margins, some forms in the southwest of the range of the species (for example, C. calliantha Sargent, C. seducta Sargent) may have glandular-serrate sepal margins. They may represent introgression with C. coccinioides. The varieties of C. pruinosa are weakly differentiated from each other, most of them on leaf shape and size characters. The more widespread varieties constitute a range of morphotypes held together by common traits. Crataegus gaudens Sargent is a strikingly distinct form from Pennsylvania that has more or less elliptic leaves with lobes absent; it is clearly related to C. pruinosa. Note that 159. Crataegus ×coleae, a Michigan endemic, will key out here if its laterally scarred pyrenes are missed.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Crataegus crocea ranges from southwestern Alabama to central Florida into North Carolina; it is particularly abundant and locally common in Alachua and Marion counties, Florida.

A wide view is taken of Crataegus crocea. The typical form, which represents one pole of variation, has narrowly elliptic leaves perfectly smooth in outline, acute at the apices, the distal margins sometimes finely denticulate and larger leaves slightly incised distally. It is the most distinctive form of the species and is locally common at least in northern Florida. Other forms with similar leaves may be referred to C. frugalis and, if with larger leaves at maturity sometimes slightly incised distally, to C. recurva. Crataegus curva is a form that is somewhat similar to the type but is wider and shorter and has shorter petioles. Often, leaves of C. crocea are wider than the type form and somewhat spatulate; these represent C. villaris and C. incana, the latter with particularly dense tomentum when young. All the foregoing forms intergrade. Forms such as C. adusta Beadle, with more or less spatulate leaves often with strongly crenulate to obscurely lobed leaf apices, are intermediate with C. condigna. They are larger in all their parts than typical C. crocea.

In spite of its variability, there should usually be no difficulty separating Crataegus crocea either from C. munda or from the small-leaved C. condigna, both subser. Tenues, both of which have obviously toothed leaf margins, nor from C. lacrimata with its glabrous inflorescences and more or less eglandular bracteoles. Larger-leaved forms of C. crocea, with spatulate-cuneate blades obscurely crenate-serrate distally, may resemble the C. illudens form of C. lassa (subser. Robustae) from Selma, Alabama; they retain the smaller fruit of C. crocea.

A related, unnamed form known from northern Florida has particularly long petioles, narrowly rhombic-obovate leaf blades (that is, with the lateral vertices nearer the distal end), and more or less entire margins.

Crataegus crocea can form an attractive, delicate shrub, which should be very suitable for xeriscaping.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)