Succulent hawthorn

Crataegus succulenta, the fleshy or succulent hawthorn, is a deciduous small tree or large shrub of the Rosaceae, typically 3-7 m tall with a rounded crown and stout, straight, glossy chestnut-brown thorns 3-6 cm long. It is among the most wide-ranging hawthorns of North America, distributed from southern Canada throughout much of the United States and into northern Mexico, growing in thickets, woodland edges, fence rows, and rocky open sites. The alternate, simple leaves are obovate to elliptic, doubly serrate to shallowly lobed, dark glossy green above and somewhat pubescent on the veins beneath, turning yellow to orange in autumn. White five-petaled flowers about 1.5 cm across are borne in flat-topped corymbs in late spring, and develop into bright red, succulent pomes 10-15 mm in diameter with persistent calyx lobes and two to three nutlets; the fruits are edible and notably juicy.