Leaves ovate or, on shoots, deltoid in outline, acute or shortacuminate at the apex, rounded, truncate or subcordate at the base, 4-8 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, sharply and unevenly serrate with spinulose teeth nearly to the base, incised, and generally with 3-4 pairs of shallow, lateral lobes, the lowest pair sometimes enlarged and triangular on shoots, thin but firm at maturity, scabrate above when young, and permanently pubescent at least on the veins beneath; petioles slender, a third to half as long as the blades, slightly villous and usually with stalked or sessile glands ; flowers 18-22 mm in diameter, in simple or rarely branched, slightly villous or glabrate corymbs; stamens about 20; anthers usually pink, sometimes white; fruit subglobose or depressed-globose, full and rounded, 12-17 mm in diameter, bright red, sometimes slightly pruinose, with thick flesh, becoming mellow but firm; calyx broad and shallow, slightly elevated; calyx lobes lanceolate, glandular-serrate, usually persistent on the fruit; nutlets 4-5, usually 5. A tree up to 4-5 m high, or sometimes an arborescent shrub with gray, slightly scaly bark, ascending or spreading branches, and stoutish, glabrous branchlets usually sparingly armed with stout, purple thorns. This species has been confused with Crataegus coccinioides, which differs from it in its glabrous, broader leaves with crisped margins, its larger flowers in glabrous corymbs, and in its larger, bright crimson, usually angular fruit with a very large calyx. Indiana specimens are from the unglaciated area and are found in Clark and Floyd Counties in the "knobs" in open woodland, and in Martin County on a wooded slope.