Calycine hawthorn

Crataegus rhipidophylla, the calycine or fan-leaved hawthorn, is a thorny deciduous shrub or small tree in the rose family (Rosaceae) reaching about seven metres tall, with stout woody thorns up to about 1.5 cm long. The dark green leaves are obovate with two to four pairs of acute, finely serrated lobes, and the more or less dome-shaped crown develops good shade tolerance. White flowers are borne in corymbs of five to fifteen blooms in May and June, each with the persistent reflexed sepals that distinguish this species. The bright to dark red, ellipsoidal pomes, 8-15 mm long, ripen from late summer into autumn and persist into winter. Native to much of central and eastern Europe, the species inhabits forest edges, hedgerows and scrub on calcareous to neutral soils, where it hybridises with other members of the Crataegus monogyna aggregate.