Crataegus microphylla
Crataegus microphylla C. Koch
Rosaceae – Rose family
Conservation status. Critically Endangered [CR B2ab(ii,iii)]. BDA.
Morphology and biology. Slender shrub. Twigs glabrescent, purplish brown, with 5–12 mm long, slender spines. Leaves 15–30 mm long, 10–25 mm wide, ovate, with 3–5 wide obtuse lobes, light green beneath, glabrous, margin serrulate, with 4–16 mm long petioles; stipules falcate-incurved, serrate. Flowers 8–13 mm in diameter, in corymbose inflorescence. Sepals short, triangular-ovate. Petals obovate, white. Style 1. Fruits 9–12 mm, sub-globose, bright red, with erect crown of sepals at the top, fleshy; pyrene 1. Fl. IV–V, fr. VI. Insect pollination. Reproduction by seeds.
Habitats and populations. On humid places in dense forests with high air humidity, usually in the clearings and shrubby places. Forms small in numbers populations with limited area.
Distribution in Bulgaria. NE Bulgaria (known from one locality in the forest near the mouth of the Kamchiya river); up to 300 m alt.
General distribution. E Europe (Bulgaria, Caucasus, S Crimea), N Turkey, N Iran.
Threats. Habitats disturbance, drying up of dense forests; small population; special habitats requirements.
Conservation measures taken. Protected species according to the national Biodiversity Act. The locality is in a site of the European ecological network Natura 2000 in Bulgaria.
Conservation measures needed. Studies of the number of individuals and area of the population, biology and ecology of the species; collection and deposition of seeds to the National Seed Genebank in Bulgaria.
References. Franco 1968; Zieliński et al. 2002; Popova 2003.
Author: Ana Petrova
