Erect spiny shrub or small tree to c. 3 m high; young shoots rusty-pubescent. Leaves simple, oblong to oblanceolate, mostly 3–6 cm long, 6–10 mm wide, base tapering, apex acute or obtuse, mucronate, margins crenulate, both surfaces glabrous; petiole 3–10 mm long; stipules minute, early caducous. Flowers in corymbs on short lateral shoots; pedicels glabrous. Sepals glabrous; stamens persistent in fruit. Pome subglobose, 4–8 mm diam., glabrous, dark red or crimson; pyrenes 4 or 5. Flowers spring–summer.
VVP, VRiv, GipP, CVU, DunT, EGU, HSF, HNF. Also naturalised Qld, NSW, ACT. Native of the Himalayas. A widely cultivated plant that has been collected on roadsides near Coleraine, Bacchus Marsh, Longwood and Ensay, and in riparian scrub along the Yarra River near Warrandyte.
Source:
Jeanes, J.A.; Jobson, P.C. (1996). Rosaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 556–585. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
