Chaenomeles speciosa (Sweet) Nakai

Foodplant / pathogen
Erwinia amylovora infects and damages flower of Chaenomeles speciosa

Foodplant / gall
aecium of Gymnosporangium confusum causes gall of live fruit of Chaenomeles speciosa
Other: unusual host/prey

Foodplant / sap sucker
Parthenolecanium corni sucks sap of live shoot of Chaenomeles speciosa

Shrubs deciduous, to 2 m tall, with thorns. Branchlets purplish brown or blackish brown, terete, glabrous, with pale brown lenticels; buds purplish brown, triangular-ovoid, glabrous or pubescent at margin of scales, apex obtuse. Stipules reniform or suborbicular, rarely ovate, large, 5–10 mm, herbaceous, glabrous, sharply doubly serrate at margin, apex acute; petiole ca. 1 cm, initially sparsely pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade ovate to elliptic, rarely narrowly elliptic, 3–9 × 1.5–5 cm, glabrous or pubescent abaxially along veins on leaves of shoots, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin shortly serrate, apex acute or obtuse. Pedicel absent or short, ca. 3 mm, subglabrous. Flowers precocious, 3–5-fascicled on second year branchlets, 3–5 cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, glabrous. Sepals erect, suborbicular, rarely ovate, 3–4 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially pubescent. Petals scarlet, rarely pinkish or white, ovate or suborbicular, base shortly clawed, apex rounded. Stamens 40–50, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles 5, ca. as long as stamens, connate at base, glabrous or slightly pubescent. Pome fragrant, yellow or yellowish green, globose or ovoid, 4–6 cm in diam.; sepals caducous; fruiting pedicel short or absent. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 34*.

Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Myanmar].

Cydonia speciosa Sweet, Hort. Suburb.-Lond. 113. 1818; Chaenomeles lagenaria (Loiseleur-Deslongchamps) Koidzumi; Cydonia japonica (Thunberg) Persoon var. lagenaria (Loiseleur-Deslongchamps) Makino; C. lagenaria Loiseleur-Deslongchamps.

speciosa: showy, good-looking