Yellow-fruited hawthorn

Photo: Michael J. Papay — CC BY 4.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

Ripens: Late summer to early autumn

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

The summer haw, unusual for its yellow, pear-shaped fruit up to 16mm across. The flesh is dry and mealy rather than juicy, but the flavour is well thought of and it makes a good jelly. A south-eastern species happy on poor sandy ground.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Late summer to early autumn

Mature size

Small tree to 8 m tall and 10 m across, medium growth rate

Light

Full sun for a crop; tolerates light woodland shade

Soil pH

5.5–8.5 (mildly acid to strongly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

South-eastern North America — Virginia to Florida and west to Mississippi, in open woods and low hills on dry sandy or gravelly soils.

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

Simple, alternate, ovate and sharply serrate, thick-textured and often slightly glandular on the stalk, small for the genus.

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

Rounded to pear-shaped pomes about 10–15 mm across, ripening greenish-yellow to dull yellow rather than red — one of the yellow-fruited hawthorns, and the source of the name summer haw.

Propagation

Seed is slow and stubborn — the stony nutlets need roughly three months warm stratification followed by three months cold at about 4°C, and untreated seed can sit for two winters before moving. Named forms are budded or grafted onto seedling hawthorn rootstock instead, which also brings fruiting forward by several years.

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.