Protologue Description: Crataegus Edsoni, n. sp.
Crataegus matura, Sarg., RHODORA, iii. 24 (1901) so far as it relates to the flowers (see RHODORA, v. 144).
Leaves oblong-ovate to oval, acuminate, gradually narrowed and rounded or cuneate at the base, sharply often doubly serrate, with straight or incurved glandular teeth, and divided above the middle into 4 or 5 pairs of short broad acuminate spreading lobes, when they unfold deeply tinged with red and roughened above by short white hairs and sparingly villose below along the midribs and veins, when the flowers open during the last week in May membranaceous, light yellow-green above and pale below, and at maturity thin, dark yellow and smooth on the upper and paler on the lower surface, 6-8 cm. long and 5-6 cm. wide, with slender yellow midribs, and thin veins extending obliquely to the pints of the lobes, turning dull orange color early in autumn; petioles slender, narrowly wing-margined at the apex, nearly terete, glandular above the middle, with large persistent glands, 2-3 cm. in length; stipules linear, acuminate, glandular, caducous, leaves on vigorous shoots, long-pointed, coarsely serrate, more deeply lobed, often 8-9 cm. long and 7 cm. wide, with stout petioles broadly winged to below the middle and often rose-colored toward the base in autumn. Flowers about 1.8 cm. in diameter, on long slender glabrous pedicels, in compact usually 7- or or 8- flowered corymbs, with linear-obovate glandular bracts and bractlets; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes slender, red and glandular at the acuminate apex, entire or occasionally dentate near the base, glabrous, reflexed after anthesis; stamens 18-20; filaments persistent, dark red and conspicuous on the fruit; anthers pink; styles 3-5, surrounded at the base by a narrow ring of pale tomentum. Fruit ripening early in September, on slender drooping reddish pedicels, in many-fruited clusters, subglobose to short-oblong on obovate, bright cherry red, lustrous, marked by small pale dots, 1.3-1.5 cm. in diameter; calyx little enlarged, with a broad deep cavity, and small closely appressed lobes dark red on the upper side below the middle, often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thin, yellow, acidulous, of agreeable flavor; nutlets 3-5, narrowed and rounded at the ends, ridged with a low narrow ridge, or rounded and grooved on the back, about 7 mm. long and 4-5 mm. wide.
A broad shrub, with spreading stems 2-3 m. high forming large clumps, slender nearly straight branchlets marked by small pale lenticels, light orange-yellow more or less tinged with red and glabrous when they first appear, dark orange-brown and lustrous in their first season and dull grayish or reddish brown the following year, and armed with numerous stout nearly straight bright chestnut-brown shining spines 2.5-3.5 cm. long.
Pastures in low moist soil. Burlington, Vermont, A.W. Edson, May 1900, W.W. Eggleston (nos. 2280 & 2870 type!), September 1901, May 1902, (nos. 2344 & 3476), May and October 1903; Westminster, Windham County, Vermont, W.H. Blanchard (no. 78), May and September 1903; North Walpole, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, W.H. Blanchard (no. 34), September 1902, May 1903, W.W. Eggleston (no. 2928), October 1902, May and September, 1903; Lansingburg, Rensselaer County, New York, Charles H. Peck (no. 15 b), May and September 1903.
Name derivation: It is named for its discoverer, the late Arthur Woodbury Edson.