Cydonia cathayensis Hemsley, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 27: t. 2657. 1901; Chaenomeles lagenaria Koidzumi var. cathayensis (Hemsley) Rehder; C. lagenaria var. wilsonii Rehder; C. speciosa Nakai var. cathayensis (Hemsley) H. Hara; C. speciosa var. wilsonii (Rehder) H. Hara; Cydonia japonica (Thunberg) Persoon var. cathayensis (Hemsley) Cardot.

Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, 2–6 m tall, with short thorns. Branchlets purplish brown, terete, glabrous, with sparse, pale brown lenticels; buds purplish brown, triangular-ovoid, glabrous, apex acute. Stipules reniform, auriculate, or suborbicular, 5–10 mm, herbaceous, abaxially brown tomentose, margin minutely aristate-serrate, apex acute; petiole ca. 1 cm, pubescent or nearly so; leaf blade elliptic or lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, 5–11 × 2–4, abaxially initially densely brown tomentose, glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin minutely aristate-serrate, sparsely serrate or subentire basally, doubly serrate apically, apex acute or acuminate. Pedicel short or nearly absent. Flowers precocious, 2- or 3-fascicled, 2–4 cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous or slightly pubescent. Sepals erect, ovate to elliptic, 3–5 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially and marginally brown pubescent, apex obtuse or acute. Petals pink or white, obovate or suborbicular. Stamens 45–50, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles 5, ca. as long as stamens, pubescent or lanose basally. Pome fragrant, yellowish red, ovoid or subcylindric. 6–7 cm diam.; sepals caducous; fruiting pedicel short or nearly absent. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Sep–Oct.

Slopes, forest margins, roadsides, widely cultivated; 900--2500 m. Fujian, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.