8. Crataegus biltmoreana Beadle (Biltmore hawthorn)

C. intricata Lange var. biltmoreana (Beadle) R.W. Lance

C. villicarpa Sarg.

Pl. 526 a, b; Map 2419

Plants shrubs, usually only 2–3 m tall. Branchlets essentially unarmed to moderately thorny, the thorns mostly 3–5 cm long, dark brown to black and usually shiny at second year, sometimes becoming gray with age. Twigs reddish brown when young, becoming dark gray at second year, densely and persistently pubescent with somewhat tangled hairs. Petioles 15–30 mm long, densely and more or less persistently pubescent with short, spreading hairs, also with several short, stalked (peglike), dark glands, sometimes winged toward the tip. Leaf blades 4–7 cm long, narrowly ovate to broadly ovate or elliptic, the lobes 3–5 per side, mostly 10–25% of the way to the midvein, broadly angled to very short-tapered at the base, the lobes and tip sharply but sometimes broadly pointed, the upper surface moderately and persistently pubescent with fine, straight hairs, the undersurface similarly hairy, most densely along the veins, the secondary veins mostly 4 or 5 pairs per side. Inflorescences 2–5-flowered, the branches woolly, the bractlets relatively persistent. Flowers (13–)15–20 mm in diameter, the hypanthium densely woolly. Sepals 5–7 mm long, lanceolate-triangular, the inner surface woolly. Stamens 10, the anthers cream-colored. Styles 3–5. Fruits 9–14 mm in diameter, globose to subglobose, with a short, raised collar at the tip, finely but sometimes sparsely hairy at maturity, orange to brownish-reddish, occasionally yellow (but then often mottled with red). Nutlets 3–5. Tetraploid (by anatomical sections; see Longley [1924]). May.

Scattered, mostly in the southern half of the Ozark Division; disjunct in Caldwell and Callaway Counties (eastern U.S. west to Missouri and Arkansas). Mesic to dry upland forests, savannas, glades, banks of streams, and margins of sinkhole ponds.

This is a distinctive species with its very hairy growing parts, fairly large flowers, small stature, fairly long thorns, and orange to brownish red or occasionally yellow fruits. The leaf shape is much more variable than in C. neobushii, ranging from broadly ovate to more or less elliptic and shallowly lobed.