Gigg's Firethorn

Shrubs or small trees, to 6 m tall, with thorny branches, rarely unarmed. Branchlets initially yellowish brown or gray pubescent, glabrous when old. Petiole ca. 2.5 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes pubescent; leaf blade elliptic or oblong, rarely oblong-obovate, 1.5–4 × 1–1.6 cm, both surfaces initially yellowish brown pubescent, glabrescent, abaxially becoming slightly glaucescent, lateral veins dense, base broadly cuneate or rounded, margin usually entire, sometimes inconspicuously serrulate, apex apiculate or obtuse, sometimes slightly aristate. Compound corymb loose, 3–4 in diam.; many flowered; peduncle yellowish brown pubescent; bracts caducous, lanceolate. Pedicel 5–10 mm, yellowish brown pubescent. Flowers 8–10 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, pubescent. Sepals triangular or broadly elliptic, 1–1.5 mm, abaxially sparsely pubescent, apex obtuse. Petals ovate, 4–5 × 3–4 mm, apex slightly apiculate. Stamens 20; filaments ca. 3 mm. Ovary densely white tomentose apically; styles nearly as long as stamens. Pome bright red, depressed-globose, 4–5 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 5–10 mm, glabrous; sepals persistent, erect. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Sep–Nov.

Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan.

Slopes, valleys, among shrubs, open forests; 500--1700 m.

Sportella atalantioides Hance, J. Bot. 15: 207. 1877; Crataegus pyracantha (Linnaeus) Medicus; Mespilus loureiroi Kosteletzky; Pyracantha discolor Rehder; P. gibbsii A. B. Jackson; P. loureiroi (Kosteletzky) Merrill.

Pyracantha atalantioides (common names: Gigg's firethorn and Sichuan firethorn) is a species of Firethorn shrub.