Shrubs, 15–20 dm. Stems: twigs: new growth reddish, glabrous, 1-year old dull reddish brown, 2-years old dark gray, older paler gray; thorns on twigs: course not recorded, 2-years old dark, slender, short. Leaves: petiole ˂1 mm wide˃, length 30–50% blade, pubescence not recorded, glandular; blade broadly elliptic, 3–8 cm, ˂thin to subcoriaceous˃, base cuneate, lobes 0, or 2 or 3 per side, ˂obscure or reduced to apiculi˃, lobe apex subobtuse, margins strongly serrate, ˂teeth gland-tipped, especially toward base˃, veins 4 or 5 per side, apex acute, surfaces hairy young, glabrescent. Inflorescences 3–8-flowered; branches glabrous; bracteole margins short-stipitate-glandular. Flowers 13–18 mm diam.; hypanthium glabrous; sepals 5–7 mm, margins glandular-serrate, ˂abaxially glabrous˃; stamens 10, anthers rose; styles 2–4(or 5). Pomes yellow-green to dull orange, orange-red, or red, suborbicular to short-oblong or obovoid, 9–12 mm diam., glabrous; sepals on collar, patent-reflexed; pyrenes 2–4(or 5).

Flowering Apr; fruiting Sep–Oct. Brush, successional fields, open woodlands; of conservation concern; 100–400 m; Ala., N.C., Tenn.

Crataegus communis is uncommon and often wrongly annotated as C. straminea. The species has broadly elliptic leaves with small, very obscure or lacking, subobtuse lobes.