Shrub id please

Can you id this shrub in my son's Ohio garden please. I'm told it has thorns and has not flowered/produced fruit. The leaf looks a little like Hawthorn to me.

 

Sheal...please can you ask your son for clear close ups.
I am failing to see any thorns.
I think I am seeing tiny blobs of brown ...which might be all that is left from shrivelled flowers.

 

Will do @Silver surfer. My daughter-in-law took the pics but she's not so good with a camera unfortunately.

 

Do these help at all @Silver surfer ?

 

Thanks Sheal.
Really good clear pics...cannot see any thorns.
Interesting ...it is alternate leaves ...each leaf has 3 veins from the base.
It looks so very familiar...but I cannot think what the heck it is.

Please can I ask your son/daughter in law to look hard for flowers or fruits/seed pods in the future.
Hopefully clear pics of those will/may help.

Meanwhile I will continue to try getting my little grey cells to get a move on before they rust and seize up completely.

Duh...just as soon as I posted it came to me Spiraea x vanhouttei!
Must be going senile!
This is seriously worrying.

https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/plantbiology/ncsc/rare/images/spiraea_x_vanhouttei_krings1.jpg

http://wp.nres.uiuc.edu/images/plants/spi/spiva10.jpg

http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=c293

 

Your a marvel @Silver surfer, I think you've hit the nail on the head, thank you!

I couldn't see any thorns either, perhaps there's something else growing in amongst it.

My son/daughter-in-law have only lived at the house for just over a year but they would have noticed if it had bloomed. I'll get them to keep an eye out for any signs of flowers but I think it should have already bloomed this year. At the moment they want to dig it out so I'll see if I can talk them out of it for another year at least to give it a chance to perform.

No I don't think so, just your brain taking a short holiday.

 

Brain def on holiday...should have got that in 5 secs.!


It has flowered already...by zooming in on the first set of pics low down there are small brown bits...old flowers.
As the moment it is a shrub with no great beauty... part is dead twigs....
It is rather odd in the middle of a grassy area ...as if it is special.
As it is.... it looks "past its best before date."
I agree grub it out or try cutting it back to a stump.
Water it....feed it...mulch it ...and wait to see if it regrows
It may miss flowering until 2019, but should look better.

 

Apparently it had just a few flowers on it this year. I tried to talk my son out of removing it and giving it a chance but he says it has to go, sadly.

He and his wife have only been living there just over a year and are new to gardening so they have a lot to learn. The garden is one acre in size and mostly lawn with just a few random shrubs and a good number of trees. Perhaps the previous owners had no interest in gardening.