Tree to 12 m, with a broad, rounded top of widely spreading branches, or sometimes an arborescent shrub, sparingly thorny or nearly thornless; young twigs villous; lvs densely short-hairy above and ±tomentose beneath, becoming glabrous above and more thinly hairy beneath at maturity, highly variable in shape, 3-10 נ2.5-8 cm, usually lobed, rather deeply so on the vegetative shoots; fls 1.6-2.3 cm wide, in tomentose compound cymes; filaments much shorter than the pet; sep coarsely glandular-serrate, tomentose on both sides; fr red, often with pale dots, hairy at least near the ends, 0.9-1.6 cm thick, becoming mellow; nutlets 3-5. Commonest in limestone-regions; N. Engl. and se. Can. to Ala., w. to Minn., Kans., and Okla. (C. arnoldiana; C. canadensis; C. submollis)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.