Cockspur Thorn


Rich soils, edge of swamps.



Quebec to Manitoba.



Found sparingly in western Vermont (Flora of Vermont, 1900); southern

Connecticut (C. H. Bissell).



South to Georgia; west to Iowa.



A small tree, 10-25 feet in height and 6-12 inches in trunk diameter;

best distinguished by its thorns and leaves.



Thorns numerous, straight, long (2-
inches), slender; leaves thick,

smooth, dark green, shining on the upper surface, pale beneath, turning

dark orange red in autumn; outline obovate-oblanceolate, serrate above,

entire or nearly so near base; apex acute or rounded; base decidedly

wedge-shaped shaped; leafstalks short.



Fruit globose or very slightly pear-shaped, remaining on the tree

throughout the winter.



Hardy throughout southern New England; used frequently for a hedge

plant.





=Crataegus punctata, Jacq.=



Thickets, hillsides, borders of forests.



Quebec and Ontario.



Small tree, common in Vermont (Brainerd) and occasional in the other New

England states.



South to Georgia.



Thorns 1-2 inches long, sometimes branched; leaves 1-2-1/2 inches long,

smooth on the upper surface, finally smooth and dull beneath; outline

obovate, toothed or slightly lobed above, entire or nearly so beneath,

short-pointed or somewhat obtuse at the apex, wedge-shaped at base;

leafstalk slender, 1-2 inches long; calyx lobes linear, entire; fruit

large, red or yellow.





=Crataegus coccinea, L.=



In view of the fact of great variation in the bark, leaves,

inflorescence, and fruit of plants that have all passed in this country

as C. coccinea, and in view of the further uncertainty as to the plant

on which the species was originally founded, it seems best to consider

the specimen in the Linnaean herbarium as the type of C. coccinea which

can be described as follows:



Leaves elliptical or on vigorous shoots mostly semiorbicular,

acute or acuminate, divided above the middle into numerous acute

coarsely glandular-serrate lobes, cuneate and finely

glandular-serrate below the middle and often quite entire toward

the base, with slender midribs and remote primary veins arcuate

and running to the points of the lobes, at the flowering time

membranaceous, coated on the upper surface and along the upper

surface of the midribs and veins with short soft white hairs, at

maturity thick, coriaceous, dark green and lustrous on the upper

surface, paler on the lower surface, glabrous or nearly so, 1-1/2-2

inches long and 1-1-1/2 inches wide, with slender glandular

petioles 3/4-1 inch long, slightly grooved on the upper surface,

often dark red toward the base, and like the young branchlets

villous with pale soft hairs; stipules lanceolate to oblanceolate,

conspicuously glandular-serrate with dark red glands, 1/2-3/4 inch

long. Flowers 1/2-3/4 inch in diameter when fully expanded, in

broad, many-flowered, compound tomentose cymes; bracts and

bractlets linear-lanceolate, coarsely glandular-serrate, caducous;

calyx tomentose, the lobes lanceolate, glandular-serrate, nearly

glabrous or tomentose, persistent, wide-spreading or erect on the

fruit, dark red above at the base; stamens 10; anthers yellow;

styles 3 or 4. Fruit subglobose, occasionally rather longer than

broad, dark crimson, marked with scattered dark dots, about 1/2

inch in diameter, with thin, sweet, dry yellow flesh; nutlets 3 or

4, about 1/4 inch long, conspicuously ridged on the back with high

grooved ridges.



A low, bushy tree, occasionally 20 feet in height with a short

trunk 8-10 inches in diameter, or more frequently shrubby and

forming wide dense thickets, and with stout more or less zigzag

branches bright chestnut brown and lustrous during their first

year, ashy-gray during their second season and armed with many

stout, chestnut-brown, straight or curved spines 1-1-1/2 inches

long. Flowers late in May. Fruit ripens and falls toward the end of

October, usually after the leaves.



Slopes of hills and the high banks of salt marshes usually in

rich, well-drained soil, Essex county, Massachusetts, John

Robinson, 1900; Gerrish island, Maine, J. G. Jack, 1899-1900;

Brunswick, Maine, Miss Kate Furbish, May, 1899; Newfoundland, A. C.

Waghorne, 1894.[1]



[Footnote 1: Prof. C. S. Sargent in Bot. Gaz., XXXI, 12. By permission

of the publishers.]





=Crataegus mollis, Scheele.=



Crataegus subvillosa, Schr. Crataegus coccinea, var. mollis, T. & G.



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