Mespilus
Mespilus germanica
medlar, mespilus
common medlar, medlar
1–few, ± erect;
bark grayish, smooth, with numerous small horizontal lenticels, older rough, dark gray-brown; short shoots absent or present;
armed or unarmed, compound thorns on trunk absent; extending twigs canescent.
not fascicled;
twigs sometimes thorny, thorns 1–2 cm.
deciduous, cauline, simple;
stipules caducous, free, ± elliptic, herbaceous, margins entire or lobed, asymmetric, ± pilose;
petiole present;
blade narrowly oblong or narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, rarely oblong-ovate, 5–12 cm, thin, margins flat, entire or finely serrate distally, venation camptodromous, surfaces ± pubescent.
closely spaced on twigs;
petiole 1–4 mm;
blade: lateral veins 8–12 per side.
terminal on leafy short shoots, these terminal on woody short shoots or arising directly from extension shoots, 1(or 2)-flowered, axes canescent;
bracts present;
bracteoles present, caducous or persistent, ± linear, 5–15 mm, membranous to coriaceous, abaxially ± hairy, eglandular.
1(or 2)-flowered;
bracteoles 5–15 mm, adaxially hairy, marginal glands absent.
present, short.
perianth and androecium epigynous, 25–35 mm diam.;
hypanthium ± obconic, constricted apically, size not recorded, externally canescent;
sepals 5, spreading, triangular;
petals 5, white, usually suborbiculate, base barely clawed, apex ± notched;
stamens 25–35(–40), shorter than petals;
carpels 5, connate, adnate to hypanthium, styles 5, subterminal, distinct;
ovules 2, superposed.
anthers red (cream).
pomes, brownish, turbinate to subspheric, 15–40 mm diam. (larger in some cultivars), rough, punctate, glabrous or pubescent;
hypanthium persistent;
sepals persistent, erect to ± connivent, bases not touching;
carpels woody;
styles ± persistent, emerging through disc.
5, sides plane, covered by disc.
= 17.
= 34.
Mespilus
Mespilus germanica
Species 1.
The Eurasian Mespilus germanica is a minor fruit, occasionally cultivated and naturalized in North America. Mespilus is retained here in the traditional concept of M. germanica, because it is distinct on a variety of characteristics and has a sister position to Crataegus (C. S. Campbell et al. 2007; E. Y. Y. Lo et al. 2007; D. Potter et al. 2007; Li Q. Y. et al. 2012; Lo and M. J. Donoghue 2012). Reproductive woody short shoots with close internodes, normal in Crataegus, occur frequently, though not universally; in the latter case, the inflorescence is borne on an annual short shoot lateral to or terminal on an extension shoot. Other notable characteristics of Mespilus that distinguish it from Crataegus include brownish fruit indicating mammal dispersal (C. M. Herrera 1989); large, hairy, eglandular bracteoles; extremely wide hypanthial opening in fruit; pyrenes covered by tissue of disc; and erect to connivent foliaceous fruiting sepals with bases distinct. Mespilus characters rarely seen in Crataegus are uniflorous inflorescences (found in C. uniflora); inflorescences borne on annual short shoots as noted above, very large flowers and stamens 25–35 (found in C. triflora).
The triploid ×Crataemespilus canescens (J. B. Phipps) J. B. Phipps (Mespilus canescens J. B. Phipps), is a plant with great horticultural potential. It is a large bush with numerous fasciculate stems; exfoliating bark; simple, nearly entire leaves; 2–6-flowered, semipendant, usually racemose, inflorescences that are commonly borne on short shoots of the season lateral to an extension shoot; flowers very like M. germanica in size and general appearance, but with fewer stamens; small bright red, hawthornlike fruit; large, abaxially hairy bracteoles with scattered very large marginal glands. A substantial colony has existed at one site in Arkansas.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Mespilus germanica is native to western Eurasia, primarily to the east and south of the Black Sea. The species was previously widely cultivated as a minor fruit in the Old World; it is hardly known in North America outside arboreta. The brownish fruits are related to a relatively unusual mechanism of fruit dispersal by carnivorous animals (C. M. Herrera 1989) found also in other Maleae species. The only wild plants known from the flora area are in Washington; there are other suitable areas in North America where this species might become naturalized.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
WA
Flora NW
PNW Herbaria
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
