Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Crataegus viridis L.
- Family: Rose (Rosaceae)
- Flowering: April
- Field Marks: This hawthorn differs by its thin leaves that are usually broadest below the middle and that taper to the base.
- Habitat: Wet woods, along streams, around lakes and ponds.
- Habit: Tree to 30 feet tall, with an irregular crown.
- Bark: Pale gray, scaly.
- Twigs: Slender, usually bearing slender thorns; thorns on the trunk sometimes branched.
- Leaves: Alternate, obovate to oblong to elliptic, thin, sometimes lobed, toothed, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, smooth except for hairs in tufts along the veins beneath, up to 2 inches long.
- Flowers: Several in clusters, white or pink, 1/2 to 3/4 inch across.
- Sepals: 5, green, usually smooth.
- Petals: 5, free from each other, white or pink.
- Stamens: About 20.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Fleshy, bright red, up to 1/4 inch in diameter, containing 3 or 5 nutlets.
Previous Species -- Washington Hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum)
Return to Species List -- Group 5
Next Species -- Swamp Cyrilla (Cyrilla racemiflora)
