Protologue Description: Crataegus fulgens, n. sp. Leaves broadly ovate to suborbicular, rounded or acute at the apex, abruptly narrowed and concave-cuneate at the entire base, coarsely doubly serrate above, with straight glandular teeth and slightly divided above the middle into 4 or 5 pairs of small acute lobes, scabrate above while young, with short white hairs, and pale and glabrous below with the exception of occasional axillary persistent, and at maturity coriaceous, dark, yellow green, smooth and lustrous on the upper and pale on the lower surface, 5-7 cm. long and 4-7 cm. wide, with midribs deeply impressed on the upper side of the leaves and rose-colored on the lower toward the base, and prominent yellow primary veins extending obliquely to the points of the lobes; petioles stout, wing-margined at the apex, deeply grooved, dark rose color late in the season, 2-2.5 cm. in length. Flowers opening the first of June, on slender elongated glabrous or sparingly villose pedicels, in usually 10-12-flowered glabrous corymbs, the linear glandular bracts and bractlets fading brown; calyx-tube narrowly obconic, glabrous, the lobes slender, acuminate, laciniately glandular-serrate, glabrous on the outer, puperulous on the inner surface; stamens 5-10; anthers rose color; styles 2 or 3. Fruit ripening the middle of September, on slender red pedicels; generally 8-10 fruited drooping clusters, subglobose but rather broader than long, crimson, lustrous, marked by numerous small pale dots. 1-1.2 cm. in diameter; calyx little enlarged, with a wide shallow cavity and spreading closely appressed laciniate lobes villose-pubescent on the upper side and often deciduous from the ripe fruit; flesh thin, orange color, soft and succulent; nutlets 2 or 3, full and rounded at the ends, rounded and usually only slightly ridged on the back, penetrated on the inner faces by short broad cavities, about 7 cm. Long and 5 cm. wide.
A broad shrub 3-4 m. high, with stout spreading stems and thick nearly straight branchlets marked by numerous small pale lenticels, light orange-green and glabrous when they first appear, bright chestnut-brown and very lustrous during their first winter and ultimately dark dull gray-brown, and armed with stout nearly straight purplish spines 4-6 cm. in length.
Banks of small ravines, near the coast; Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, E.H. Eames (no. 5 type) May 1898, September 1903.