Yonghe Hawthorn

Yonghe Hawthorn

　　Yonghe Hawthorn

　　Morphological characteristics:

　　A deciduous shrub. The branches are densely packed with fine thorns, and the young shoots are covered with soft hair. The twigs are purplish-brown, while the older branches are grayish-brown. The leaves are triangular-ovate to prismatic-ovate, 2–6 cm long and 0.8–2.5 cm wide, with a truncate or broadly wedge-shaped base, and 3–5 pairs of pinnately deeply lobed lateral lobes on each side; the basal pair of lobes is deeper, and the margins have irregular sharp serrations. The inflorescence is a compound corymb, with both the peduncle and pedicels covered in long soft hair; the flowers are white, about 1.5 cm in diameter; the calyx tube is covered with long soft hair, and the sepals are either hairless on both sides or sparsely haired at the inner apex. The fruit is a deep red pome, nearly spherical. Flowering period is from May to June, and fruiting period is from September to October.

　　Characteristics:

　　The fruits are small, nearly spherical, 0.8–1.4 cm in diameter, some pressed into disc-like shapes. The surface is brown to reddish-brown with fine dense wrinkles, the apex is depressed with remnants of the calyx, and the base has a fruit stalk or it may have fallen off. The flesh is hard, the pulp is thin, and the taste is slightly sour and astringent.

　　Ecological habits:

　　Grows in valleys or mountain shrublands. Hawthorn trees have strong adaptability and excellent resistance to flooding, making them easy to cultivate. They have neat crowns, lush branches and leaves, few pests and diseases, and beautiful, lovely flowers and fruits, making them an excellent ornamental tree species for greening fields, gardens, and yards. Wild hawthorns are most commonly found on Mount Song.