Oriental hawthorn

Photo: Melburnian — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 6 through 8

Harvest calendar

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

The odd one out among the hawthorns here: nearly unarmed, with few thorns, and grown as much for its downy coral-red fruit and deeply cut, grey-backed leaves as for eating. Long in cultivation — introduced to Britain by 1810.

Hardiness

Zone 6–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Sept–Oct

Mature size

4.5–6 m (15–20 ft), rounded to spreading crown

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

6.0–8.0 (neutral to alkaline) — a limestone-country species

Environment

Temperate to Mediterranean

Native range

Southeastern Europe to the Caucasus and western Iran — Ukraine, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and Greece; Turkey, the Caucasus and Crimea. Calcareous rock, steppe, meadows and open forest to 2,150 m.

Status

Both wild and cultivated

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

450 cm (177 in) apart — about 20 m² (218 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Triangular to diamond-shaped, 2.5–5 cm long and wide, deeply cut into 5–9 lobes with jagged teeth; dark green above, grey beneath

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

Coral-red to yellowish-red, globose, about 2 cm across, downy-textured

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.