Crataegus collina Chapman var. collicola (Ashe) E. J. Palmer; C. ×verruculosa Sargent

Shrubs or trees, 50–80 dm. Stems: twigs: new growth glabrous or densely pubescent young, 1-year old gray-brown, older grayish; thorns on twigs numerous, dark chestnut brown, older gray, slender, 2–8 cm. Leaves: petiole length 20–25% blade, pubescent, glandular; blade narrowly obovate, 3.5–5 cm, base narrowly cuneate, lobes 0, or 2 or 3 per side, sinuses shallow, lobe apex acute, margins serrulate, teeth 0.5–0.7 mm, venation camptodromous, veins 3–6 per side, apex acute, ± lustrous, abaxial surface villous on veins, adaxial soft-white-hairy young, becoming sparsely scabrous. Inflorescences 6–14-flowered; branches glabrous or sparsely pubescent; bracteoles caducous, numerous, reddish, very narrow, membranous, margins glandular. Flowers 18 mm diam.; hypanthium densely villous; sepals narrowly triangular, margins entire or sparsely glandular-serrate; stamens 20, anthers rose; styles 3–5. Pomes orange to dull-red or dark red, depressed orbicular to orbicular, 8–13 mm diam., pubescent young; sepals small, erose or ± patent; pyrenes 3–5, dorsally grooved, sides plane.

Flowering May; fruiting Sep–Oct. Fertile ground along streams, fields, dry pastures in mountains; 100–1000 m; Ark., Ky., Mo., N.C., Va.

Crataegus ×collicola and C. ×verruculosa are two different putative hybrids, both of which are expected to possess parentage suggested by E. J. Palmer (1952) of C. collina and C. crus-galli. Crataegus ×collicola has thorns 4–8 mm, young twigs glabrous, leaf blade broadly elliptic to obovate, 2 or 3 lobes, and 4–6 veins per side, glabrous inflorescence branches, entire sepal margins, and pomes orange to dull red, depressed orbicular, and 8–11 mm diam. Crataegus ×verruculosa has thorns 2–2.5 mm, young twigs hairy, leaf blades narrowly obovate, unlobed, veins 3–5 per side, hairy inflorescence branches, sparingly glandular-serrate sepal margins, and pomes dark red, orbicular, 10–13 mm diam. If these are considered to be the same hybrid species, separate nothovariety names should be erected to maintain distinction.