Cathay Quince

Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, 2–6 m tall, with short thorns. Branchlets purplish brown, terete, glabrous, with sparse, pale brown lenticels; buds purplish brown, triangular-ovoid, glabrous, apex acute. Stipules reniform, auriculate, or suborbicular, 5–10 mm, herbaceous, abaxially brown tomentose, margin minutely aristate-serrate, apex acute; petiole ca. 1 cm, pubescent or nearly so; leaf blade elliptic or lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, 5–11 × 2–4, abaxially initially densely brown tomentose, glabrescent, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin minutely aristate-serrate, sparsely serrate or subentire basally, doubly serrate apically, apex acute or acuminate. Pedicel short or nearly absent. Flowers precocious, 2- or 3-fascicled, 2–4 cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous or slightly pubescent. Sepals erect, ovate to elliptic, 3–5 mm, abaxially glabrous, adaxially and marginally brown pubescent, apex obtuse or acute. Petals pink or white, obovate or suborbicular. Stamens 45–50, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles 5, ca. as long as stamens, pubescent or lanose basally. Pome fragrant, yellowish red, ovoid or subcylindric. 6–7 cm diam.; sepals caducous; fruiting pedicel short or nearly absent. Fl. Mar–May, fr. Sep–Oct.

Fujian, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang.

Slopes, forest margins, roadsides, widely cultivated; 900--2500 m.

Cydonia cathayensis Hemsley, Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 27: t. 2657. 1901; Chaenomeles lagenaria Koidzumi var. cathayensis (Hemsley) Rehder; C. lagenaria var. wilsonii Rehder; C. speciosa Nakai var. cathayensis (Hemsley) H. Hara; C. speciosa var. wilsonii (Rehder) H. Hara; Cydonia japonica (Thunberg) Persoon var. cathayensis (Hemsley) Cardot.

Chaenomeles cathayensis is a species of flowering plant in the rose family. It is native to China, Bhutan, and Myanmar. In Chinese, its common name is mùguā hǎitáng (木瓜海棠) or máo yè mùguā (毛葉木瓜).

This is a thorny deciduous shrub or tree growing up to 6 meters tall. The leaves are pointed, often toothed, and oval to lance-shaped. They are woolly-haired on the undersides, at least when new. The pink or white bell-shaped flowers are up to 4 centimeters wide. The fruit is a fragrant yellow-red pome 6 or 7 centimeters wide. Its habitats include slopes, forest margins and roadsides.

The plant is cultivated.