Pear hawthorn

Photo: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 2: 302. Courtesy of Kentucky Native Plant Society. Scanned by Omnitek Inc. — Public domain · source

Survives zone 4 through 8

Harvest calendar

Best planted in early spring after your last frost, or in fall before the ground freezes, depending on your climate.

Named for its pear-shaped fruit — larger and more thin-fleshed than most hawthorn fruit, sweet and succulent enough to eat out of hand rather than only cooked.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Oct

Mature size

Small tree to 7.5 m (25 ft), rounded form with a dense crown

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

5.5–7.5 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Eastern and central North America — Ontario and Minnesota south to Georgia and Missouri.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

5–8 yrs from seed; grafted trees often flower heavily in their third year

Growth speed

30–60 cm/year — medium, the 12–24 in/year quoted across the genus.

Spacing

500 cm (197 in) apart — about 25 m² (269 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Alternate, ovate to obovate, up to about 10 cm long, glossy dark green with a sharply serrate margin and shallow lobes towards the tip.

Root system

Seedlings put down a distinct taproot early, which is why nurseries lift them after a single year in the seedbed; established trees add a tough, wide-spreading lateral network and transplant badly once mature.

Fruit description

Distinctly pear-shaped pomes 8–15 mm long on slender stalks, ripening orange-red to bright red and softening late; the shape is what gives the tree its name.

Propagation

Seed, needing a warm followed by cold stratification period (germination is often delayed to the second spring)

Pollination

Depends on ploidy, which is rarely known for a given plant: diploid hawthorns are self-INCOMPATIBLE and need a second tree, while the many polyploid (triploid/tetraploid) species are self-compatible and largely apomictic, setting seed from a lone tree without cross-pollination. C. crus-galli is among the self-compatible polyploids. Insect-pollinated, chiefly by flies and beetles drawn to the heavy scent. ⚠ Since you usually cannot tell which you have, plant more than one if fruit is the point.

The edible parts listed above are a starting point, not a field guide. Identify a plant with certainty — ideally against a local authority — before eating any part of it, and read the full disclaimer. Spotted something wrong? Report it.