Pyrus japonica Thunberg, Nova Acta Regiae Soc. Sci. Upsal. 3: 208. 1780; Chaenomeles maulei (Masters) C. K. Schneider; Cydonia japonica (Thunberg) Persoon; Pyrus maulei Masters.

Shrubs to 1 m tall, with slender thorns. Branches spreading; branchlets purple when young, blackish brown when old, terete, scabrous and tomentose when young, verruculose, and glabrous when old; buds purple, triangular-ovate, glabrous, apex acute. Stipules reniform, ca. 1 cm, herbaceous, glabrous, margin serrate, apex obtuse; petiole ca. 5 mm, glabrous; leaf blade obovate or spatulate to broadly ovate, 3–5 × 2–3 cm, glabrous, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin crenate, apex obtuse or acute. Pedicel short or nearly absent, glabrous. Flowers 3–5-fascicled, 2.5–4 cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous. Sepals ovate, rarely suborbicular, 4–5 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially and margin brown pubescent. Petals dark red, obovate or suborbicular. Stamens 40–60, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles ca. as long as stamens, connate at base, glabrous. Pome yellow, subglobose, 3–4 cm in diam.; sepals caducous; fruiting pedicel short or nearly absent. Fl. Mar–Jun, fr. Aug–Oct.

Cultivated. Fujian, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Zhejiang [native to Japan].