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Scientific: Pyracantha hybrids (a complex scene of horticultural hybrids)
Common: Called 'firethorn' or just plain 'pyracantha'.

More Taxonomy: The five most popular species are scarlet firethorn (Pyracantha coccinea), Formosa firethorn (Pyracantha koidzumii), Roger's firethorn (Pyracantha rogersiana), Chinese firethorn (Pyracantha fortuneana or Pyracantha crenatiserrata), and narrow-leaf firethorn (Pyracantha angustifolia).

Family: Rosaceae (rose family)
Origin: Eurasia. Collectively, the five species of Pyracantha are broadly distributed from the eastern Mediterranean region and central Europe across to Asia to China and Taiwan (formerly Formosa).

Pronounciation: Pie-ra-CAN-tha SPEE-shees

Hardiness zones:
Sunset 4-24
USDA 7-11

Landscape Use: Varies landscape uses depending on cultivar and growth habit ranging from ground cover, background screen, informal hedge, barrier, winter (fruit) and spring (flower) accent, espalier, to landscape topiary. Pyracantha can even be used as a 'colorful landscape bowling ball' (a metaphysical certainty once the 'horticultural clods' or 'hort clods' of Phoenix take over a landscape maintenance account).

Form & Character: Stiff and upright to prostrate and spreading, informal, colorful, mildly dangerous, oriental, mesic.

Growth Habit: Evergreen, woody, broadleaf perennial shrub, growth rates range from slow to fast depending on cultivar. Growth rate of vigorous cultivars is very rapid and can reach 20 feet tall; whereas, prostrate forms typically grow slow.

Foliage/Texture: Pyracantha coccinea has ovate leaves that taper to an acuminate tip, serrate to dentate, to 1.5-inches long when mature, new foliage can be densely pubescent. Pyracantha koidzummii, has lighter green leaves, oblanceolate to espatulate to 2-inches long, leaf tips are rounded to slightly emarginate. Both species (mostly seedlings) often have the presence of a stipular thorn on a smooth dark brown stem and are plants of medium texture.

Flowers & Fruits: Corymbs of small white perfect flowers on terminal meristems in spring followed by clusters of green turning orange to bright red fruits (fruits are actually small pomes, not berries as commonly referenced) in fall and early winter. Fruit color of Pyracantha coccinea is scarlet red, 1/4 inch in diameter. Fruit color of Pyracantha koidzummii is orange-scarlet, 1/4 inch in diameter with head of fruit somewhat flattened.

Seasonal Color: White flowers in Spring and orange or red fruit in late fall/early winter.

Temperature: Tolerant

Light: Full sun, but no full western exposures.

Soil: Iron chlorosis in highly alkaline, wet soils is the biggest problem in Phoenix.

Watering: Mostly regular irrigations in southwest deserts. Little to no supplemental water needed along California coastal valleys or in the southeast US.

Pruning: Selectively remove off new growth in mid spring after flower and again in early to mid-fall to reveal and expose fully the fruits for late fall and early winter accent display. Also be careful to selectively remove any growth of the vigorous seedling rootstock in the case of grafted cultivars.

Propagation: Softwood or semi-hardwood stem cuttings, cultivars are usually grafted onto seedling rootstock.

Disease and Pests: The bacterial disease fireblight is pyracantha's biggest problem (except in arid cities such as Phoenix where fireblight is rare). Aphids and spider mites also occur.

Additional comments: There are many Pyracantha hybrids and cultivars of varied form and fruit color. Because of the complexity of the hybridation of the five species, one will need to resort to specifying firethorn or Pyracantha in the landscape by cultivar name. Desirable hybrids and cultivated varieties include:

'Apache' grows to 5-feet high and 6-feet wide and has large, bright red fruits that last well into winter. This selection is resistant to fire blight and scab.

'Fiery Cascade' grows to 8-feet tall and 9-feet wide, has orange fruits that turn red during the winter and has good disease resistance.

'Gnome' is very cold hardy and grows to 6 feet high and 8 feet wide. The fruits are orange. This selection is very susceptible to scab.

'Lowboy' is a spreading plant, which reaches a height of only 2 to 3 feet. The fruits are orange, and this selection is also prone to scab.

'Mohave' grows to 12-feet tall and wide and has many, big orange-red fruits, which last well into winter. This selection is resistant to fire blight and scab.

'Teton' is very cold hardy and grows to 12-feet tall and 4-feet wide, almost in an inverted cone shape. The fruits are golden yellow. This selection is also resistant to fire blight and scab.

'Tiny Tim' is a compact plant to 3-feet tall with small leaves and few or no thorns. The fruits are red.

Myth buster: One of the myths about firethorn is that the fruits are poisonous. If you've ever watched birds feast on firethorn fruits, then perhaps you have wondered if they were indeed poisonous. Birds will simply devour the delicious ripe fruit and might become intoxicated if the fruit is over ripe (containing a bit of alcohol). Ingestion of over ripe fruit will cause birds to do all sorts of weird, stupid stuff such as fly into windows, drop off perches and power lines, or chirp endlessly.

The fact is, Pyracantha fruits (little apples) are entirely edible and there is at least one recipe I've discovered for Pyracantha jelly. If you have a surplus of Pyracantha berries in the fall/winter and would just as soon the birds did not rob you of them, then you might enjoy the taste of Pyracantha jelly. It is quite tasty, much like apple jelly in appearance and flavor.

Here is a recipe for you aspiring chefs:
To extract the juice, boil a pound of fruits in 3/4 cup of water for one minute. Strain the juice through clean cloth. To one cup juice, add one teaspoon lemon juice and package powdered pectin. Bring it to hard boil; add 3/4-cup sugar and then continue a rolling boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Pour into hot, sterilized jars.