Crataegus apiifolia Michx.

A shrub or miniature tree in this country, with slender, downy young shoots; thorns 1 to 11⁄2 in. long. Leaves triangular to kidney-shaped, the lower ones on the shoot deeply toothed, the upper ones deeply parallel-lobed as well as toothed; usually more or less hollowed at the base; 1 to 13⁄4 in. wide, not so long; bright green and almost or quite glabrous; stalk 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long, slender. Flowers 3⁄4 in. across; borne in May, each on a slender hairy stalk up to 1 in. long, in corymbs. Calyx-tube downy, the lobes glabrous; stamens twenty, anthers bright pink; styles one to three. Fruit scarlet, 1⁄3 in. long, oval.

Native of the southern United States; introduced early in the nineteenth century, but has frequently quite disappeared from cultivation. It is too tender for all but the milder parts of Britain, and although it may live for several years and flower, as it has done at Kew, I have never seen it bear fruit. It is very distinct in the shape and deep parallel lobing of the leaf.