Shrubs, 8–20 dm; ?suckering?. Stems 1–20+, erect; bark gray or brown, ?smooth?; short shoots absent; unarmed; appressed-pilose, glabrous, or glabrescent. Leaves deciduous, cauline, simple; stipules persistent, adnate to petiole, narrowly triangular, margins glandular; petiole present; blade elliptic to obovate, 2.5–7.5(–18) cm, membranous, margins flat, glandular serrulate-dentate, venation pinnate, surfaces glabrous or glabrescent to pilose (or villous). Inflorescences lateral and apparently terminal, 5–12(–20)-flowered, corymbose, appressed pilose; bracts reduced to glands; bracteoles reduced to glands. Pedicels present. Flowers: perianth and androecium epigynous, 12–20 mm diam.; hypanthium campanulate, 1–2 mm, glabrous or villous; sepals 5, erect, triangular; petals 5, white to pale pink, elliptic to orbiculate, ?base clawed?; stamens 16–22, equal to petals; carpels 5, connate proximally, adnate to hypanthium, hairy, styles terminal, distinct; ovules 2. Fruits pomes, red or black, obovoid or subglobose, 6–9(–11) mm, glabrous or pilose; hypanthium persistent; sepals persistent, ± appressed; carpels cartilaginous; styles ?and often filaments? persistent. Seeds 1–8 per pome, ?2–3 mm?. x = 17.
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Hypanthium broadly obconic; sep 5, spreading at anthesis, usually glandular on the margin; pet 5, broadly obovate or rotund, short-clawed, spreading; stamens usually 20; ovary densely woolly on the summit; styles 5, connate at base, long-persistent; fr a small, red to black pome; shrubs with simple, alternate, glandular-serrate lvs bearing a row of slender glands along the midvein on the upper side, and with rounded or flattened compound clusters of small white fls. Often submerged (along with Sorbus) in the closely allied genus Pyrus. Only our 2 spp.In addition to the two following diploid, sexual spp., there is a series of ± self-perpetuating hybrids and hybrid-descendants, partly apomictic, possibly in part tetraploid, with dark purple or purple-black frs and with the herbage usually less pubescent than in A. arbutifolia, often ± glabrate; the lvs do not turn red. Such plants may occur with or without one or both of the parental species. This variable, partly stabilized population, which appears to be augmented by continuing hybridization, may be called A. prunifolia (Marshall) Rehder. (A. atropurpurea; Pyrus floribunda)
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