Description: Deciduous small trees or large shrubs, usually spiny.
Leaves alternate, simple, wedge-shaped at base, shallowly to deeply lobed at apex; stipules leafy.
Flowers mostly in corymbs terminating short leafy shoots. Sepals 5, persistent in fruit. Petals 5. Stamens 5–25, in 1–3 series. Carpels 1–5, walls stony in fruit; styles 1–5, ovules 2.
Fruit fleshy, usually red.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 200 species, temperate Northern Hemisphere. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), N.S.W., Vic., S.A.
Crataegus was formerly placed in the family Malaceae (now part of Rosaceae), e.g. Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1 (1990). A number of species are cultivated in cooler regions.
Text by G. J. Harden & A. N. Rodd
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Crataegus monogyna |
|
