Broad-lobed hawthorn

Photo: Knud Ib Christensen — CC BY-SA 3.0 · source

Survives zone 4 through 7

Harvest calendar

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

An unusually long fruiting window for a hawthorn — fruit begins colouring in early summer and persists through autumn, rather than ripening in one short flush.

Hardiness

Zone 4–7

Habit

Tree

Edible part

Fruit

Ripens

June–Oct

Mature size

4.5–6 m (15–20 ft) tall and wide, rounded crown

Light

Full sun to part shade

Soil pH

5.0–7.5 (acid to neutral)

Environment

Temperate

Native range

Europe east to the Caucasus and Turkey — from Scandinavia and Britain south to the Balkans — in hedgerows, wood margins, scrub and rough grazing on well-drained ground.

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

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

Leaf shape

Ovate with 3–5 lobes, up to 6 cm long, finely toothed margins, dark green

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

Oblong pomes 8–15 mm long and 1.3–2 times as long as wide, ripening bright to dark red from summer into autumn.

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.