Hawthorn, Crataegus chrysocarpa, Native Minnesota Tree, Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden, Fireberry Hawthorn

Other names and notes	Trees and Shrubs of the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden
	Common Name	Scientific Name	Plant Family	Garden Location	Flowering Season
	Hawthorn	Crataegus chrysocarpa Ashe and Crataegus ssp	Rose (Rosaceae)	Woodland	Spring flowering
	(Fireberry Hawthorn) There are many species and confusing species, as Eloise Butler describes at the bottom of the page. Hawthorns will grow into small trees up to 25 feet in height. Tree or shrub, they have a round-top form with branches having a few long sharp thorns. The leaves are ovate with 3 or 4 pairs of lobes and doubly serrate coarse teeth. The flowers are 5-parted, white petals, 5 to 10 stamens with reddish-brown anthers, and 3 or 4 styles. The fruit of this species matures to a fleshy red berry. Prior to maturity, the calyx lobes of the flower are reflexed on the immature fruit. The large Garden specimen is on Geranium Lane. Martha Crone wrote in the April 1961 issue of The Fringed Gentian™ "The trees in May offer many lovely sights, but none finer than when in bloom, especially the wild cherries, plum and hawthorns." Read Eloise Butler's notes below.


Above: The white blossoms in spring.	Above: A flower bud cluster above the new leaves.

Above: Fruit in early to mid-August. Note the reflexed calyx lobes still present on the green berries. Below: Typical thorns on the slender branches.	Above: Mature red fruit in late September. Below: Fruit turning red in late August.

Below: The lovely flowers have 5 to 10 stamens with reddish-brown anthers, and 3 or 4 styles.

Notes: Hawthorn is native to Minnesota in most counties from central northward and a few counties in southern Minnesota. Hawthorns are indigenous to the Garden area. Eloise Butler catalogued six species in her Garden Logs as early as April 29, 1907. That early one was listed as Crataegus rotundifolia, which is now classified as C. chrysocarpa Ashe. In Martha Crone's 1951 Garden census, she listed three hawthorns as present in the Garden: Big-fruited (Crataegus macrosperma), listed simply as Hawthorn on her list; Downy Hawthorn (C. millis - should be "mollis"), and Dotted Hawthorn (C. punctata) which she mis-identified as "large-fruited" - that is actually the name for C. macrosperma. These three were also part of the six listed in Eloise Butler's logs. Curiously, Martha Crone does not list C. chrysocarpa, which is the identification of the Garden species on the 1986 census, and is also the earliest identified species on Eloise Butler's logs. The most recent census simply lists Crataegus ssp.

Eloise Butler wrote: "Many are the allusions to the hawthorns of England in poetry and prose. Indeed, the very name, England, calls up to the observer of plants a mental picture of hawthorn thickets and hedges. It is pertinent to ask why writers neglect to extol the American species. For our hawthorn trees or shrubs are of extreme beauty, when covered with their snowy fleece of bloom, or when glowing with the sweet tasting, stony bright red “thorn apples.” The leaves of the hawthorn may have margins varying from toothed to lobed or divided. The thorns may be long and stout, or few and feeble; thus belying the name.

Of all the botanical mazes, that of the hawthorn is the most intricate. In Gray’s seventh edition, no less than sixty-five species of the genus are described, as well as many varieties .Some botanists go so far as to affirm that every individual is a different species. When the ordinary student wearies of cudgeling his brain over minute differences of stamen, nutlet or whatnot, he ignominiously names the species “Crataegus sp.?” or passes on the puzzle to the greatest authority, Professor Sargent, the director of the renowned Arnold Arboretum of Boston. Those desirous of extending their acquaintance of hawthorns may see grouped together in this arboretum the largest collection of both native and foreign species known to the world." Published June 4, 1911, Sunday Minneapolis Tribune (read entire article).

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References: Plant characteristics are generally from sources 15, 16, 30, 31, 33, W2 & W3. Distribution principally from W2 and also 31, 34 and W1. Planting history generally from 1, 4 & 4a. Other sources by specific reference. See Reference List for details.

Friends of the Wild Flower Garden, Inc. All photos are the property of The Friends of the Wild Flower Garden unless otherwise credited. "www.friendsofthewildflowergarden.org"

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