Scientific name: Crataegus calpodendron (Ehrh.) Medik. Common name: Pear Hawthorn, Urn Tree Family: Rosaceae; Rose Flowering period: April- May Fruiting period: September Habitat: Rich soil, river banks

Images: Crataegus calpodendron (Ehrh.) Medik., Pear Hawthorn in the Flatwoods of the Berry College Campus, Mt. Berry, Georgia on April 18, 2008. It was identified by Ron Lance from North Carolina on September 5, 2004.

Description: "(urn-tree; referring to the shape of the fruit) - A tree 5-6 m. high or often an arborescent shrub, with slender sparingly thorny or nearly thornless branchlets tomentose while young and dark brownish-gray bark becoming thick and furrowed on old trunks; leaves ample, mostly ovate, oblong-elliptic, or rhombic, coarsely serrate except near the base, usually with 3-5 pairs of shallow often asymmetric lateral lobes, short-villous above while young and usually pubescent beneath throughout the season, firm, dull yellow-green and with the veins impressed above at maturity; flowers 1.2-1.5 cm wide, many tomentose corymbs; stamens about 20; anthers pink or rarely white; calyx-tube pubescent, the lobes glandular-serrate or pectinate; fruit oblong or obovoid , rarely nearly globose, 7-9 mm thick, pubescent while young , bright red or orange-red, with thin sweet flesh becoming succulent , and 2-3 nutlets deeply pitted on the inner surface." - Ernest Jesse Palmer, 1950

Last updated on April 26, 2008.

References:
1. Palmer, Ernest J., in Fernald, Merritt L., Gray's Manual of Botany 8.ed. New York: D.Van Nostrand Company, 1970: 800
2. USDA, NRCS. 2006. The PLANTS Database, 6 March 2006 (http://plants.usda.gov). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.
Images: by Zvezdana Ukropina-Crawford

Botanical Explorations in Floyd County
List of Hawthorns from Floyd County, Northwest Georgia, United States