Entire-leaved cotoneaster

Crataegus integrifolius Roxburgh, Fl. Ind. ed. 1832, 2: 509. 1832 (as Crategus integrifolia)

Shrubs, ˂wide-spreading˃, 0.5–1.5 m. Stems weakly ascending, suberect, or decumbent; branches spiraled, purple-black, sometimes green and brown striate, initially strigose. Leaves persistent, petiole 1–5 mm, strigose; blade oblanceolate or oblong, rarely lanceolate, 8–17 x 3–8 mm, coriaceous, base cuneate, margins revolute, veins 2–4, superficial, apex rotund or obtuse, rarely emarginate or acute, abaxial surfaces grayish white, ˂faintly reticulate˃, initially densely strigose or strigose-pilose, later glabrate, adaxial dark green, sometimes blue-green, shiny, not glaucous, not bulging between lateral veins, initially strigose, soon glabrate. Inflorescences on fertile shoots 5–12 mm with 2 or 3 leaves, 1(or 2)-flowered, ˂subsessile˃. Pedicels ˂erect˃, densely strigose. Flowers 7–15 mm diam.; buds pink; hypanthium narrowly cupulate, densely strigose; sepals: margins densely villose-strigose, ˂borders membranous˃, apex ˂often red˃, acute or obtuse, sometimes shortly mucronate, surfaces often densely strigose-villous; petals spreading, white, glabrous; stamens 20, filaments white, anthers red-purple; styles 2[or 3]. Pomes dark red with crimson, sometimes red, depressed-globose, 7–9 x 7–10 mm, dull or slightly shiny, glaucous, sparsely villous; sepals suberect or erect, villous; navel open; style remnants at apex. Pyrenes 2[or 3]. 2n = 68 (Germany).

Flowering Apr–Jun; fruiting Aug–Mar. Openings in conifer forests; 0–200 m; introduced; Calif.; Asia; introduced also in Europe.

Cotoneaster integrifolius was treated as C. microphyllus Wallich ex Lindley var. thymifolius (Baker) Koehne by L. Lingdi and A. R. Brach (2003).