Chinese firethorn

Photinia fortuneana Maximowicz, Bull. Acad. Imp. Sci. Saint-Pétersbourg 19: 179. 1873; Pyracantha crenatoserrata (Hance) Rehder; P. crenulata (D. Don) M. Roemer var. rogersiana A. B. Jackson; P. rogersiana (A. B. Jackson) Bean; P. yunnanensis (M. Vilmorin ex Mottet) Chittenden

Plants 10–30 dm. Stems: thorns sparse to abundant; young twigs rusty-hairy (gray-hairy in 1 variation), glabrescent. Leaves: stipules 3–8 mm; petiole 2–5 mm; blade oblanceolate or obovate, 1.5–6 × 0.5–2.5 cm, base cuneate, margins remotely serrulate or crenulate, often entire proximally, apex obtuse, emarginate, or short-apiculate, surfaces glabrate. Inflorescences 3–4 cm diam. Pedicels 2–8 mm, usually glabrate, rarely sparsely appressed brown- or gray-hairy. Flowers 4–12 mm diam.; hypanthium glabrate, rarely slightly hairy; sepals triangular, 1–1.5 mm, apex obtuse; petals suborbiculate, 3–4 mm, apex rounded. Pomes orange-red to dark red, 3–6 mm diam.; pedicels 2–10 mm. 2n = 34 (China).

Flowering Feb–May; fruiting Sep–Mar. Disturbed ground, roadsides, canyons, woodland edges, open forests, riparian areas; 0–1500 m; introduced; Ala., Calif., Fla., Ga., La., N.C., Oreg., S.C., Tex., Wash.; Asia (China); introduced also in Europe (England), Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand), Australia.

Pyracantha fortuneana is native to central and western China. It is variable in the amount of toothing on the leaf blades and color of the hairs on new growth. Plants having grayish hairs on young twigs rather than the usual rusty or brownish hairs have been attributed to the taxon P. rogersiana, which has also been interpreted as a variety of P. crenulata. It is insufficiently distinct to separate from P. fortuneana among the specimens examined.