Deciduous shrub or small tree, 2-5 m tall, branching low down, sometimes with thorns 2-3 cm long on mature plants. Leaves alternate, oblong-lanceolate, 8-12 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, soft-hairy below, margins finely toothed, orange-red and gold in autumn; stipules soon shed. Leaf stalks about 1 cm long. Flowers solitary, terminal, white, to 4 cm wide. Petals 1.5-2 cm long. Stamens 30-40, anthers red; late spring. Ovary inferior. Carpel solitary,1-chambered. Fruit apple-like, brownish green, 3-4 cm wide, with 5 persistent sepal lobes over a hollowed apex.
Available cultivars include 'Breda Giant', 'Large Russian' and 'Royal'.
SE Europe.
Source: (2002). Rosaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
Spreading, flat-topped tree with a slightly weeping habit. Fruit 5-6 cm wide, round, brown, sepals short. Used for eating and conserves. ['Great Dutch', 'Giant']
Mespilus germanica 'Nottingham'
Small tree. Fruit 2-3 cm wide, pear-shaped, yellow-brown, sepals long. Used for eating and conserves.