Hawthorn

Crataegus spp.

Hawthorns are thorny members of the rose family with small apple-like fruits called haws. Depending on the species, the fruit can be red, orange, yellow, or nearly black and ranges from dry and mealy to fairly juicy.¹

New England has a confusing number of native and introduced hawthorns, and even botanists have disagreed over where one species ends and another begins. Fireberry hawthorn, Crataegus chrysocarpa, is one northern species whose range reaches from Newfoundland south into the United States.¹

Young leaves, flower buds, and young flowers also have a history as food. The fruits are pomes, putting them in the same structural neighborhood as apple.²

The name Crataegus comes from a Greek word associated with strength, while “haw” is an old word for the fruit. A hawthorn hedge is therefore not named after the modern fruit haw flakes, though those sweets are made from hawthorn fruit.