A small tree up to 20 ft high, or a shrub; branchlets zigzag, armed with thorns 1 to 11⁄2 in. long; young shoots and leaves soon glabrous. Leaves broadly diamond-shaped, obovate, oval or even roundish, more or less tapered at the base, the upper half toothed and either pointed or rounded at the apex; lobed on strong barren shoots; 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, nearly or quite as wide; stalks 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 in. long, and, like the base of the leaf, very glandular. Flower 3⁄4 in. diameter, white, produced three to six together on corymbs 11⁄2 to 2 in. across; flower-stalk and calyx shaggy, calyx-lobes conspicuously glandular-toothed; stamens ten; anthers yellow; styles three to five. Fruit globose, 1⁄2 in. diameter, orange-red.
Native of the south-eastern United States; introduced in 1900. It belongs to the group of which C. flava is the type, but promises to be a much handsomer tree than that is. It flowers very freely, and its fruits are richly, if not very brightly coloured. It is marked by the very glandular leaf-bases, leaf-stalks, and inflorescence.