General:
Medium to tall shrub 1-7 m tall, with stout, straight thorns 1-2 (3) cm long; bark grey or brownish, rough and scaly.
Leaves:
Alternate, deciduous, egg-shaped to oval, 3-6 cm long, irregularly toothed, the top end often with 5 to 9 shallow lobes, somewhat thick and leathery, dark green above, paler below, nearly smooth to hairy.
Flowers:
Inflorescences short, terminal or axillary clusters; flowers several to many, stalked, 1-1.5 cm across; corollas white, the petals 5, nearly circular, 4-7 mm long; calyces 5-lobed, the lobes triangular, somewhat long-hairy toward the tip; ovaries inferior, smooth to short-curly-hairy, the styles usually 5; stamens 10 to 20.
Fruits:
Berry-like pomes (like miniature apples), globe- to egg-shaped, about 1 cm long, blackish-purple, smooth; stones (nutlets) 2 to 5, 1-seeded.
Notes:
Two varieties occur in BC:
1. Flowers mostly with 10 stamens; ovaries often hairy; leaves often weakly lobed above the middle as well as saw-toothed; plants from largely east of the Coast-Cascade Mtns., the common variety................. var. douglasii
1. Flowers mostly with 20 stamens; ovaries usually smooth; leaves merely 1- to 2-times saw-toothed; plants from west of the Cascade Mtns........................ var. suksdorfii Sarg.
If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.
Illustration Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia