Crataegus viridis Linnaeus var. nitida Engelmann ex Britton & A. Brown, Ill. Fl. N. U.S. 2: 242. 1897

Trees, 100 dm. Stems: mature trunk bark broken into gray-brown platelike scales; twigs: new growth not recorded, 1-year old chestnut brown, subcoriaceous; thorns on twigs absent or few, 1–2-years old chestnut brown, 2.5–4 cm. Leaves: petiole 1.5–2.5 cm, length 33% blade, adaxially pubescent young, sparsely glandular; blade broadly lanceolate to narrowly rhombic-elliptic, 5–8 cm, subcoriaceous, base tapered, lobes 0, or 1 or 2(or 3) per side, ˂sinuses shallow, max LII (0–)5–10(–20)%˃, margins strongly serrate (teeth 2–3 mm), venation craspedodromous, veins 5 or 6 per side, apex acute to acuminate, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences 10–20-flowered, ˂dome-shaped˃; branches glabrous. Flowers 15–18 mm diam.; hypanthium glabrous; sepals ˂7 mm˃, margins glandular-denticulate, ˂abaxially glabrous˃; anthers cream or pale pink. Pomes brick red to red, pruinose on drying, suborbicular, 8–12 mm diam.; sepals spreading. 2n = 51.

Flowering Apr; fruiting Sep–Oct. Flood plains; of conservation concern; 10–200 m; Ark., Ill., Mo.

Crataegus nitida is found from southern Illinois to eastern Arkansas along the Mississippi River flood plain; it appears to be rare. The species differs only slightly from C. viridis var. viridis, mainly in the larger fruit, more pronounced leaf marginal teeth, and more coriaceous mature leaves. Horticultural plants labeled C. nitida are usually a C. crus-galli × C. viridis cross.