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Xiv. Flavae

Haw (C. aprica, Beadl.)--Tree 15 to 20 feet high, or many-stemmed shrub. Thorns straight, slender, chestnut brown, 1 to 1 1/2 inches long. Bark dark grey, deeply furrowed, with plate-like scales; branchlets brown to ashy grey. Leaves obovate or rhomboidal, acute or rounded, serrate, often faintly lobed at apex, entire at tapering base; thick, shiny, dark yellow-green at maturity, paler beneath, 1 1/2 to 2 inches long and wide; petioles short, winged. Flowers, May, 3 to 6 in corymbs, velvety stems, corollas 3/4 inch across, stamens 10, anthers yellow. Fruit late to ripen, 2 to 3 in cluster, 1/2 inch in diameter, slightly flattened, dull orange red; calyx spreading, red tinged at base; flesh juicy, yellow, sweet; nutlets 3 to 5, ridged. Preferred habitat, dry woods of foothills. Distribution, southwestern Virginia, through western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia and Alabama. Common at 1,500 to 3,000 feet above sea level.

Its contorted branches and dark, furrowed bark give this tree a picturesque appearance that matches well the wild, broken foothills it covers in thickets of considerable extent. Inured to high altitudes and exposed situations, yet it grows thriftily in the Arboretum at Boston. It is a striking tree in late autumn, when its leaves turn to purple, and the twigs are illuminated by the thickly clustered, orange-red fruit.