Fleshy hawthorn – Crataegus succulenta

Pronunciation: krah-TEE-gus suh-kew-len-tuh

Shrubs or trees, 4 – 8 meters

Stems: older trunks usually bearing compound thorns

Twigs: new growth reddish green, glabrous, 1 - year old dark, shiny red-brown, becoming dark gray, to paler gray; thorns on twigs usually recurved, shiny, blackish brown, stout, 3 – 8 cm.

Leaves: petiole 1 – 2 cm, narrowly winged distally, glabrous; blade rhombic-elliptic to broadly rhombic-ovate or elliptic, 4 – 7 cm widest near middle, subcoriaceous mature (then often blue-green), base cuneate (constricted), lobes 3 – 5 per side, obscure to well-marked, sinuses shallow, lobe apex usually subacute to obtuse, margins serrate except proximally, veins 6 – 8 per side, impressed, apex acute to subacute, rarely obtuse, abaxial surface glabrous, adaxial scabrate-pubescent young. Inflorescences 15 – 30 -flowered; branches pubescent or glabrous; bracteoles linear, 1.7 cm, margins glandular.

Flowers: white with 5 petals

Fruit/Pomes: bright or deep red, lustrous

Crataegus succulenta ranges through the southern Great Lakes area to the middle St. Lawrence and southern New England, to Minnesota, to Iowa, Missouri (very rare), and Ohio, the Appalachians to North Carolina. An outlier has recently been recognized in Manitoba.

The dark twig colors of Crataegus succulenta are dramatic in winter and the coral red expanding bud scales are conspicuous in spring, more so than in most other species of hawthorn except C. macracantha. In summer, its commonly bluish green leaves, eglandular petioles, and impressed venation combine with thorn and twig characteristics to make this and C. macracantha usually instantly recognizable.

Crataegus succulenta often forms suckering thickets in the north.

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242416356