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, although each haw contains several hard pyrenes that make the small fruit more seed than flesh.²³

Haws vary dramatically between species. Some are dry and mealy, while others have thick, sweet flesh that works better cooked than eaten out of hand. A New England hawthorn may be red, orange, yellow, or almost black when ripe, so fruit color alone is not a reliable identification. The genus is unusually difficult in this region, with many species and hybrids, which makes a confirmed plant identification important before gathering.¹⁴

The food value of hawthorn is concentrated in the flesh around the seeds. In species with worthwhile fruit, that flesh can be cooked into a preserve or pie filling, dried, or strained into a thick sauce; the hard inner pyrenes are discarded. Hawthorn also carries a useful seasonal contrast: the fruits persist into fall and winter, after softer berries have disappeared, while the young spring leaves and flowers offer a different, greener food before the haws arrive.³

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.