Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

GREEN HAWTHORN

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Crataegus viridis L.

Riley County, Kansas

Height: To 50 feet

Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Trunks:

Stems ascending to erect; branches armed, thorns tan to reddish brown, straight, 1.2 to 1.6 inches; bark reddish brown to gray, furrows shallow, ridges scaly, exfoliating in large flakes.

Twigs:

Reddish brown to grayish brown, rigid, glabrous; leaf scars elliptic to half-round; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .06 to .08 inch, apex obtuse, scales glabrous.

Leaves:

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .28 to 1 inch, glabrous or glabrate; blade round to ovate, oblong, or rhombic-elliptic, .8 to 1.6 inches long, .4 to 1.4 inches wide, thin, base wedge-shaped, lobes 0-2 per side, margins serrate, veins 3(-4) per side, apex acute to obtuse, lower surface light green, with tufts of hairs in leaf axils, upper surface dark green, dull, minutely pubescent or glabrate.

Flowers:

Inflorescences terminal from new growth, corymbs, 3-12-flowered; pedicels .16 to .3 inch, glabrous. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric, .5 to .7 inch diameter; hypanthium obconic, glabrous; sepals 5, spreading, triangular, .08 to .12 inch; petals 5, white, obovate, .2 to .35 inch; stamens 20; anthers white; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 3-5-locular, partially adnate to hypanthium; styles 3-5, connate proximally, .16 to .2 inch; stigmas as many as styles, capitate.

Fruit:

September-October; pomes, red to orangish red, nearly spherical, .2 to .3 inch diameter, glabrous or glabrate, not glaucous; sepals persistent; stones 3-5, yellowish brown, wedge-shaped, .18 to .24 inch long,.08 to .14 inch wide.

Habitat:

Stream banks, floodplain forests and woodlands, pastures.

Distribution:

Southeast 1/5 of Kansas

Origin:

Native.

Comments:

Crataegus viridis is highly variable in leaf shape and size across its range; six varieties have been recognized.

Green hawthorn bark