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 munda is one of the most widespread species in the series; it occurs from central Florida and southeastern Alabama to North Carolina with scarce outliers in Mississippi (Forest and Jones counties) and Virginia (Nansemond County).

Crataegus munda, like C. lepida, has a stiff, compact habit and usually lacks the weeping branches typical of the series; both are among the few species of hawthorn that regularly flower at under 1 m tall. Herbarium specimens of C. munda somewhat resemble C. lacrimata, but have shorter petioles, hairy young pedicels, and are more likely to have acute leaves with more pronounced marginal teeth. Some similarities may also exist to narrower-leaved forms of C. crocea, which has more pendant leaves with at most denticulate margins, usually much longer petioles, and nearly tomentose inflorescences and hypanthia.

A similar form, perhaps Crataegus geniculata Ashe, with usually larger, more sharply toothed leaves, 3 or 4 veins per side, larger flowers with less hairy pedicels, and subpyriform fruit, has been found in northeastern Georgia.

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