Irregularly and often intricately branched shrub 1-3 m, or a small tree 3-8 m, with few or many slender thorns 2.5-5 cm, the twigs glabrous or villous; lvs thin but firm, ovate to elliptic, rhombic, or even suborbicular, 2.5-6 נ1.5-5 cm (or the vegetative ones larger), usually with several pairs of shallow lateral lobes, glabrous to short-villous; petiole 1-3 cm, evidently glandular; fls 1.3-2 cm wide, 4-10 in simple or compound, lax, glabrous or villous cymes, these with numerous bracts conspicuously and copiously stipitate on the margins; sep narrow or broad, glandular-serrate or entire; fr green or yellow to orange or red, 0.7-1.5 cm thick, with thin dry flesh and mostly 3-5 nutlets. N. Engl. and s. Ont. to N.C. and Ala., w. to Mich. and Ark. (C. biltmoreana; C. boyntonii; C. foetida; C. fortunata; C. neobushii; C. rubella; C. stonei)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.