Scarlet hawthorn

Photo: VoDeTan2 — CC BY-SA 3.0 · 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.

The scarlet haw, and one of the better hawthorns to eat: 10–20mm fruit that in good forms is juicy with an excellent flavour when fully ripe, though bitter if picked early. Quality varies a lot between individual trees, so taste before you plant.

Hardiness

Zone 4–8

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

October

Mature size

Round-headed tree to 7 m tall and as much across

Light

Full sun for a crop; succeeds in semi-shade with lower yields

Soil pH

5.5–8.0 (mildly acid to mildly alkaline)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

North-eastern North America — Connecticut to Ontario, Illinois and Pennsylvania; naturalised in Britain.

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

600 cm (236 in) apart — about 36 m² (388 sq ft) per plant

Leaf shape

Broadly ovate, sharply and doubly toothed with several pairs of short pointed lobes, thin-textured and nearly hairless at maturity, carried on slender stalks.

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

Drooping scarlet pomes about 10–15 mm across on noticeably long, slender stalks — the pedicels the name refers to — with soft flesh that falls early rather than persisting.

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.