"paghat" wrote in message
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This shrub has been in the yard forever & I've never known what species it
is:
http://www.paghat.com/images/unknownhawthor_sep.jpg
It would seem to be some kind of Crataegus species or Hawthorn, but there
are other rose-family trees, even some Prunus, which get just as thorny, &
I've just never been certain. Here's another shot of it showing the leaves
better:
http://www.paghat.com/images/unknownhawtho_sep.jpg

In comparing it to a common Russian hawthorn the differences are many:

1) It has smaller-than-average white flowers in May, & they are
inconspicuous compared to similar blooms of Russian hawthorns, chokeberry,
&c.
2) It has regular-looking hawberries except slightly compressed rather
than round.
3) It has elongated leaves rather than ferny or lobed as most hawthorns.

Other traits:
1) The thorns are a good two inches long & sharper than the dickens
2) It is an old shrub but only about twelve or fifteen feet tall, so not
something that ever becomes a tree.
3) This one has a vase-shaped multi-trunked

-paggers

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/