Arnold hawthorn

Crataegus mollis, the downy or Arnold hawthorn, is a deciduous tree of the Rosaceae family reaching about 9 metres tall and as wide, with an oval to broadly pyramidal crown and nearly thornless to moderately thorny branches. Young twigs, leaf undersides and flower stalks are softly downy, giving the species its specific epithet. The alternate, broadly ovate leaves have shallow lobes and serrate margins, turning yellow to russet in autumn. Showy white flowers, sometimes flushed pink or lavender, appear in flat-topped corymbs in May and June and are pollinated chiefly by flies and midges. The fruit is a relatively large, dull red pome about 20 to 25 mm across with mealy, sub-acid flesh ripening in September. The species is native to central and eastern North America, where it occurs in rich bottomland forest, woodland edges and floodplains of major river systems from the Great Plains east to the Appalachians.