They usually attain a height of 30 feet and a spread of 40 feet or more. The large, shallowly-lobed leaves are alternate, simple and doubly serrate and broadest at the base. The dull green leaves are initially densely hairy beneath, becoming hairy mainly along the veins. The stout leaf stalk is 1 to 2 inches long and usually hairy. In the fall, the leaves turn yellow, orange, or bronze-red and usually all drop within a short space of time.
Branches are ashy-gray and sometimes nearly thornless.
Showy, white flowers are produced in broad heads on downy stalks in mid-May, sooner than other hawthorns. The skin is bright red and downy and the edible, yellow flesh is thick and juicy. Bark is reddish-brown, becoming light gray and cracking vertically into long, close strips. The downy hawthorn is native from southern Ontario to Virginia, west to Kansas and South Dakota. It is found throughout Iowa, except in the northwestern corner of the state.