Chaenomeles speciosa (Hybrid)

"The genus Chaenomeles Lindley (chaenomeles) is assigned to the subfamily Maloideae of the ecologically and economically important Rosaceae (Phipps et al. 1990). Within Maloideae, Chaenomeles is most closely related to the genera Cydonia (quince), Docynia, Malus (apple) and Pyrus (pear). Chaenomeles has obtained its name from the Greek chaino, "to gape," and melon "apple," based on Thunberg's 1784 description of the type species for the genus: C. japonica (Thunb.) Lindl. ex Spach (Weber 1964). This description is not considered correct, since the fruit very seldom splits (Weber 1964), but is a phenomenon that has been noticed occasionally."