Arborescent shrub or more often a tree to 10 m, often with a broadly rounded or depressed top and widely spreading branches; twigs glabrous or nearly so; lvs glabrous or nearly so, dark green and glossy above, the floral ones mostly obovate or narrowly obovate to sometimes elliptic, 2-6 נ1-3.5 cm, only obscurely if at all lobed, those on vegetative shoots more often 5-9 נ3-8 cm and sometimes more evidently lobed; petiole 0.3-2 cm; fls 0.8-1.8 cm wide, in glabrous or subglabrous, usually lax, compound cymes; sep lanceolate or lance-linear, entire or occasionally somewhat serrate; fr 0.6-1.5 cm thick, green to dull or bright red, remaining rather hard and dry; nutlets usually 1 or 2(3-5); 2n=51, 68. Que. to Fla., w. to Minn., Kans., and Tex. (C. acutifolia; C. canbyi; C. hannibalensis; C. ohioensis; C. permixta; C. prunifolia; C. pyracanthoides; C. regalis; C. schizophylla; C. tantula; C. vallicola) Typical C. crus-galli has 10 usually white anthers; plants with 20 pink anthers have been segregated as C. tenax Ashe (C. fontanesiana, misapplied).
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.