File Size: 63 KB
Crataegus mollis   (T. & G. ) Scheele
Riley County, Kansas
Height: To 30 feet
Family: Rosaceae - Rose Family
Flowering Period:   April, May
Trunks: Stems or trunk ascending to erect; branches usually unarmed, sometimes armed, thorns dark gray to black, straight to plus or minus recurved, 1.2 to 2.4 inches; bark reddish brown to yellowish brown, fissures shallow, ridges blocky or scaly, peeling or exfoliating.
Twigs: Brown to gray, rigid, initially tomentose, glabrescent; leaf scars crescent-shaped to V-shaped; buds reddish brown, ovoid, .12 to .2 inch, apex acute, scales tomentose.
Leaves: Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole .6 to 1.6 inches, tomentose or glabrate; blade ovate to elliptic, 1.6 to 4 inches long, 1.2 to 3.2 inches wide, thin, base truncate to wedge-shaped, lobes 2-4 per side, margins serrate, veins 4-7(-9) per side, apex acute to obtuse, lower surface light yellowish green, tomentose, upper surface dark yellowish green to green, dull, scabrous-pubescent or glabrate.
Flowers: Inflorescences terminal from new growth, cymes, 5-15-flowered; pedicels .4 to .8 inch, tomentose.bisexual, radially symmetric, .8 to 1 inch diameter; hypanthium obconic, tomentose; sepals 5, spreading, triangular, .16 to .24 inch; petals 5, white, elliptic to obovate, .3 to .5 inch; stamens (10 or) 20; anthers white; pistil 1, ovary inferior, (3-)5-locular, partially adnate to hypanthium; styles (3-)5, connate proximally, .28 to .3 inch; stigmas as many as styles, capitate.
Fruit: September-October; pomes, red, nearly spherical, .5 to .6 inch diameter, more or less tomentose, more or less glaucous; sepals usually deciduous; stones (3-)5, yellowish brown, wedge-shaped, .2 to .3 inch long, .08 to .16 inch wide.
Habitat: Upland forests, woodland edges, floodplains, fencerows, pastures.
Distribution: Principally east 1/3 of Kansas
Origin: Native.
Comments: Crataegus mollis is a common, widespread species in the eastern United States west of the Appalachians.

Downy hawthorn bark
127 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Downy hawthorn bud
34 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Downy hawthorn leaf
73 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Downy hawthorn leaf
63 KB
Riley County, Kansas
Downy hawthorn habit
183 KB
Riley County, Kansas