1. Crataegus marshallii Eggl. (parsley haw)

C. apiifolia (Marshall) Michx., an illegitimate name

Pl. 528 j, k; Map 2412

Plants shrubs or more commonly small trees, 2–8 m tall, occasionally bigger, usually single-trunked, the trunks lacking branched thorns, the bark gray, smooth, mottled, peeling in large, irregular, thin patches exposing an orangish brown to grayish green underlayer. Branchlets unarmed or variably thorny, the thorns mostly 2–3 cm long, slender, straight or slightly curved, dark and shiny at second year. Twigs mostly densely appressed-hairy in first year, becoming glabrous with age, dark purplish brown the first year, grayish brown with age, sometimes slightly glaucous. Petioles 10–20 mm long, hairy, nonglandular. Leaf blades 1.5–3.0 cm long, nearly as wide as long, broadly ovate to ovate-triangular in outline, sometimes slightly asymmetric in outline, broadly rounded to truncate or shallowly cordate at the base, the tip and lobe tips mostly sharply but sometimes broadly pointed, with (2)3–4(5) mostly deep, jagged lobes per side and narrow sinuses, the margins otherwise sharply and irregularly toothed, nonglandular, herbaceous in texture, the upper surface dull, moderately hairy when young, becoming glabrous at maturity, the undersurface densely hairy when young, becoming glabrous at maturity except along the main veins, at least some of the secondary veins extending to the sinuses between the larger lobes, the other veins with the ultimate branches extending to the tips of the lobes and teeth. Inflorescences 3–8-flowered, the branches densely hairy, the bractlets membranous, linear, entire to obscurely toothed, with glandular margins, shed early. Flowers 12–17 mm in diameter, the hypanthium hairy. Sepals 3–4 mm long, narrowly triangular, the margins finely toothed, the teeth gland-tipped, glabrous on the inner surface, hairy on the outer surface. Petals 6–8 mm long, elliptic, white. Stamens 20, the anthers deep pink to red or rarely yellow. Styles 1 or 2(3). Fruits 4–6(–8) mm long, 3–4 mm wide, ellipsoid to occasionally subglobose, lacking a raised collar at the tip, the surface bright red at maturity, glabrous, shiny. Nutlets 1 or 2, the lateral faces not pitted. Diploid or triploid (by flow cytometry; see Talent and Dickinson [2005]). Late March–early May.

Uncommon, known only from the western portion of the Mississippi Lowlands Division (southeastern U.S. west to Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). Swamps and bottomland forests; also rarely old fields in bottoms.

Yellow-anthered forms of this attractive species have been called C. apiifolia var. flavanthera Sarg.