Crataegus monogyna

Crataegus monogyna is a species of deciduous broadleaf flowering plants (in the Rosaceae or Rose family), native to Europe including Britain, the Caucasus, the Middle East and north Africa. It is a small tree, of up to 10 metres, that can live for centuries. It assumes a dense, rounded form, from which short drooping branches emerge. Young stems have thorns, and the the trunks of older trees can be rather gnarly. The bark is light grey-brown, with many vertical cracks, revealing an orange colour underneath. The tree has small leaves, with three to seven deeply separated and widely spreading lobes, dark green and glossy on the upper surface, turning yellow, light brown or bronze before falling in mid-autumn.

Crataegus monogyna bears profuse white or sometimes pink flowers in May (giving it one of its common names), after the leaves have opened. Like the blackthorn Prunus spinosa, the hawthorn suddenly becomes very obviously abundant in the British countryside while in flower. Later in the year it bears numerous small red fruit, called haws, each containing a stone that itself contains a single seed (see photo from Kheloufi et al. (2018). The haws remain on the tree during winter, producing food for birds, who spread the seeds. They are edible by humans and used to make jelly and jam.

Crataegus monogyna is commonly used as a hedge plant and hence found often along roadsides, in hedgerows and on farms, and in Whiteknights Park around car-parks etc. Hedges are traditionally made from hawthorn by cutting the stems almost right through, bending them down and weaving them together, so they grow into a thorny barrier that animals cannot penetrate; this craft is called hedgelaying.

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