| Author | Beadle | |
| Distribution | A complete mystery for NC. Lance (2014) shows it in the west-central and southern Coastal Plain, but no records between eastern NC and the southwestern SC Coastal Plain. In reality, there is little reason for it to be disjunct. To confuse matters, Weakley (2018) shows it as rare and only in the Mountains. Thus, the county range map below is probably meaningless and misleading at the present time.
Lance (2014) shows this “species” – in reality a loose collection of older named taxa grouped (perhaps uncomfortably) into this species – from eastern NC and MS southeast to AL and northern FL. Even so, this species seems to be rare or scarce across its range, though the range is certainly poorly known.
| |
| Abundance | Apparently very rare or rare, if correctly identified. Though not yet on the NC Rare or Watch lists, it likely should be in the future. For the time being, this website has assigned it an S1? state rank. | |
| Habitat | “Upland pine and pine-oak forests with clay soils” (Weakley 2018). Lance (2014) says “rocky woods and dry places” and “hardwood and pine-hardwood forests”. | |
| Phenology | Blooms in April, and fruits in August and September. | |
| Identification | This is a small tree or large shrub, and with numerous strong thorns, as have most hawthorns. This species has widely ovate to nearly elliptical leaves, entire on the lower margins but strongly toothed on the outer margins; there are no lobes. Leaves are nearly as wide as long. Many other hawthorns are similar, and thus see Weakley (2018) or Lance (2014) for more details. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | This species was originally included within the formerly quite broad C. flava (e.g., RAB 1968). Recent references, especially, consider this a valid species. In fact, Lance (2014) lists four varieties, but only one of which is known to occur in NC – C. alleghaniensis var. mira. Because so many hawthorn full species are very similar to others, Weakley (2018) wisely does not list varieties. NatureServe does not list the species on NatureServe Explorer. Note that Lance (2014) spells the species name as “allegheniensis”.
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Alleghany Hawthorn | |
| State Rank | [S1?] | |
| Global Rank | GNR | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
