Black hawthorn

Photo: User:BotBln — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 5 through 9

Harvest calendar

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

Fruit ripens black, sometimes a handsome purple, in clusters that eat like a single-stoned cherry since the several large seeds stick together. Tolerates wind well but dislikes maritime exposure.

Hardiness

Zone 5–9

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

Sept–Oct

Mature size

To about 6 m (20 ft)

Light

Full sun

Soil pH

5.5–8.0 (mildly acid to very alkaline) — very soil-tolerant

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Southeastern Europe to the Caucasus and Iran — Hungary and Romania through the Balkans to the Russian Caucasus.

Status

Wild

Years to fruit

5–8 yrs from seed; 3 yrs if grafted

Growth speed

Slow

Spacing

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

Leaf shape

Alternate, deeply cut into three to seven lobes, 3–6 cm, dark green and slightly hairy beneath — more deeply divided than the common hawthorn's.

Root system

A deep, strong taproot with wiry laterals, which is what makes hawthorn so wind-firm, so drought-tolerant on thin chalk, and so difficult to move once it is more than a few years old. Plant it small and leave it where it is.

Fruit description

About 1 cm across, up to five large seeds that stick together inside the flesh

Propagation

Seed, best sown fresh in autumn; stored seed needs 3 months warm followed by 3 months cold stratification and germinates slowly and erratically.

Pollination

Pollinated by midges, drawn by the flowers' faintly fetid, decaying-fish scent when they open — shared with several of its European relatives.

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.