The name ''Crataegus oxyacantha'' L. has been rejected as being of uncertain application, but is sometimes still used.

Taxonomy

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

introduced the name ''Crataegus oxyacantha'' for a species of Northern European hawthorn and the name gradually became used for several similar species, which were assumed to be the same, particularly the Midland hawthorn '' C. laevigata'' and the common hawthorn '' C. monogyna''. In 1946,

Dandy A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance and personal grooming, refined language and leisurely hobbies. A dandy could be a self-made man both in person and ''persona'', who emulated the aristocratic style of l ...

showed that Linnaeus had actually observed and described a single-styled species similar to the common hawthorn, and the Midland hawthorn was effectively a later discovery. However, Byatt showed that confusion over the true identity of ''C. oxyacantha'' remained, and the name was formally rejected as ambiguous by the

International Botanical Congress International Botanical Congress (IBC) is an international meeting of Botany, botanists in all scientific fields, authorized by the International Association of Botanical and Mycological Societies (IABMS) and held every six years, with the locatio ...

.. More recently, Christensen concluded that the species studied by Linnaeus matches '' C. rhipidophylla'' Gand., a relatively rare species.

References

{{reflist oxyacantha