Crataegus [unranked] Cordatae Beadle in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 532. 1903; Crataegus sect. Cordatae (Beadle) Eggleston

Trees, 40–100 dm. Stems: trunk bark freshly exposed ± orange, older dark gray brown, flattened-scaly in elongate strips; compound thorns on trunks present; thorns on twigs determinate. Leaves: petiole length 40–60% blade; blade ˂brilliantly bronze and purple in fall, glossy˃, ± deltate, ˂broad, 3–6 cm˃, lobes palmate or 2 or 3(or 4) per side, sinuses deep, ˂triangular˃, venation craspedodromous, veins to lobes and deeper sinuses. Inflorescences 15–30-flowered; branches glabrous; bracteoles caducous, linear, small, membranous, margins stipitate-glandular. Flowers 10–12 mm diam.; sepals broadly triangular; stamens 20, anthers ivory; styles 3(or 4). Pomes vermillion, ± orbicular, 5–8 mm diam., ˂shiny˃; sepal remnants persistent or deciduous; pyrenes 3, dorsally grooved, sides plane.

Species 1: c, se United States; introduced elsewhere in the flora area.

Series Cordatae occurs in a wide band from Missouri to North Carolina with outliers in all states southward except Alabama. Anthesis occurs last among sympatric hawthorns.