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 gattingeri extends from Missouri to Pennsylvania south to Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia; it should be sought in southern Illinois and Indiana.

Crataegus gattingeri is similar to the variably hairy C. pruinosa var. virella, which has normal-sized anthers. Considerable similarity occurs between C. compacta and C. gattingeri; both may have stipitate-glandular bracteoles, the leaves and flowers are about the same size, and the thorn and twig colors are similar. In the latter species a greater range of leaf shape occurs, from narrowly ovate to practically deltate, and bases rounded to broadly cuneate. The lobes and apices of the leaves of C. gattingeri are usually much sharper. Crataegus gattingeri is also superficially similar to small-leaved forms of ser. Tenuifoliae such as C. iracunda, which also usually has particularly small leaves at anthesis. It differs from the latter primarily in its 20 stamens, small anthers, much less hairy adaxial leaf surfaces at anthesis, and more glandular-bracteolate inflorescences. These two may be difficult to differentiate in fruit. The author has not come across C. gattingeri var. rigida E. J. Palmer, from Indiana and Kentucky, which apparently differs from the widespread type variety in its stouter and flexuous twigs, stouter thorns, and smaller flowers. It would not seem to be part of C. gattingeri. Crataegus arcana Beadle represents a somewhat similar form of possible conspecificity.

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