Chaenomeles (redirected from maule's quince)

Chaenomeles 

(flowering quince), a genus of deciduous or half-evergreen shrubs or small trees of the family Rosaceae. The branches are usually thorny. The alternate leaves are gathered in clusters on old shoots; they are simple, serrate, or crenate along the margins. The large (3–5 cm across) flowers are solitary or in short racemes. The five-parted corolla is red, pink, or white. Flowering occurs before or simultaneously with the appearance of the leaves. The fruit is a pome. There are three species distributed in East Asia. The shrub C. speciosa, which is about 2 m tall and has ovate or somewhat elongate, sharply serrate leaves, is native to China, Tibet, and Burma. It is cultivated as an ornamental and for its fruit; in the USSR its cultivation extends from the latitude of Leningrad southward. More rarely cultivated are the species C. japonica and C. cathayensis and various interspecies hybrids.