Foraging Hawthorn (Crataegus sp.): Identification and Uses

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Hawthorn trees (Crataegus sp.) are a group of edible and medicinal trees that are used around the world.  Just about every culture has traditional hawthorn recipes and remedies, using haws (the edible fruit) or their fragrant hawthorn flowers or nutritious leaves.

A few years back, walking at the edge of the woods in early June, I ran across a breathtaking tree that I’d never noticed before.  It was covered in white flowers with an intoxicating tropical scent. 

Plums and apples had long since stopped blooming and set fruit, and the leaves weren’t quite right in any case.  Plucked off a few leaves and managed to identify a potent wild medicinal: Hawthorn.

Now that I know what to look for, I see hawthorn trees everywhere!  What once looked like just another wild crabapple now has its own character, and I’ve found that hawthorns are incredibly common in the north woods (and they’re also popular as landscape and street trees in the city and suburbs).

Every year, we make a few new hawthorn recipes, from jelly to wine, and we also make medicinal recipes like tincture and syrup.  They’re all delicious!

What is Hawthorn?

Crataegus species are a group of several hundred perennial shrubs and small trees in the Rosaceae or rose family. They’re commonly called hawthorns, quickthorns, thorn apples, May trees, Mayflowers, hawberries, or whitethorns.

Hawthorns are native to the world’s temperate regions. There are hawthorn species native to Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. Some species, like the Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), have been introduced widely outside their native range.

Is Hawthorn Edible?

All hawthorn species produce edible, berry-like fruits or haws. While none are poisonous, some species have excellent flavor, while others are unpalatable. You can eat hawthorn berries raw or cooked, but you should try to avoid the seeds.

Like apples, hawthorn seeds contain a compound called amygdalin, which comprises sugar and cyanide. In the small intestine, this compound breaks down into hydrogen cyanide, which can be toxic in large quantities.

Young hawthorn leaves, flower buds, and flowers are also all edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. Herbalists use all of these parts of the hawthorn and the berries medicinally, generally in internal preparations.

Hawthorns are also generally palatable to livestock like cattle and goats. Sometimes, people even use them as health supplements for animals like horses. 

If you have a heart condition or are on blood thinners or heart medication, talk to your physician before consuming hawthorn. Hawthorn is often used to lower blood pressure and treat heart issues. It may interact with certain conditions or medications.

Hawthorn Medicinal Benefits

Hawthorn has a long history of folk use wherever it grows. In ancient Greece, Dioscorides documented hawthorn’s medicinal usage in the 1st century A.D., and Pliny and Galen also mentioned it in their writings. Tang-Ben-Cao recorded hawthorn use in China around 659 A.D. as well. 

Hawthorn’s health benefits may have also contributed to its spiritual use. The Romans hung hawthorn sprigs over cradles to protect newborns from harm, early Christians hung them over doorways during the Middle Ages for protection, and Pagans used hawthorn flowers to create garlands for May Day celebrations.

With its prolonged and widespread use, it’s no surprise that hawthorn has remained a common medicinal herb today. Modern herbalists often reach for hawthorn when making internal preparations for heart health, circulation, digestion, and immune system support. You can even find hawthorn listed as an ingredient in herbal tea blends at your local grocery store.

In traditional Chinese medicine, hawthorn berries are a common prescription for hypertension or high blood pressure. Modern studies have supported this use. A randomized, double-blind study from the Phytotherapy Research found that participants taking a hawthorn berry extract showed promising reductions in resting diastolic blood pressure and reported reduced anxiety.

Hawthorn supplements help improve related conditions like obesity and high blood sugar. A 2019 study looking at Chinese Hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida) found that it may help improve cholesterol levels and treat obesity, high blood sugar, and atherosclerosis or hardening of the artery walls.

Hawthorn’s use as a digestive aid may also be well deserved. A 2018 study in mice found that hawthorn extract sped up their digestive process. A previous study on rats from 2008 also indicated that hawthorn berry extract has notable anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective, free-radical-scavenging, and antimicrobial activities. 

Adding hawthorn berries to your diet in any form can also help support a healthy lifestyle. Modern studies have found that hawthorn berries are a rich source of antioxidants. 

Where to Find Hawthorn

Hawthorns grow wild in much of the world’s temperate regions. You can find native hawthorn species growing in Europe, North America, Asia, and North Africa. Many species have also naturalized outside their native ranges, like the European Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. 

An incredibly diverse group, you can find hawthorns adapted to a wide range of habitats. Some, like the large Downy Hawthorn (Crataegus mollis), prefer moist valleys and hillsides of open woodlands. Others, like the Yellow Hawthorn (Crataegus flava), thrive in dry, sandy, and gravelly soils of pine forests and woodland borders. Often, hawthorn species thrive in areas where they receive full sun to partial shade, like abandoned fields, forest edges, open woodlands, and along railroad tracks and streams.

When to Find Hawthorns

As perennial trees and shrubs, hawthorns can be found year-round. However, they’re much easier to identify when the leaves are on during the summer or spring when they’re in flower.

Hawthorns usually bloom in May or June, which has earned them the common names May flowers or May trees. You can harvest the flower buds, blossoms, and tender, young leaves this time of year. 

Hawthorns fruit in late summer or fall. Generally, the Downy Hawthorn (Crataegus mollis) is among North America’s first hawthorns to ripen in August or September. The exact date of your hawthorn harvest will depend on your species and climate.

Identifying Hawthorns

Hawthorns are relatively easy to identify, though specific species can be difficult to distinguish. Most hawthorns are shrubs or small trees, with a few of the tallest species reaching 50 feet, while many species remain shorter.

Hawthorns tend to have many-branched dense crowns that are rounded or flat-topped. As the name hawthorn suggests, they all bear long thorns, which can help you identify them.

Hawthorn Leaves

Hawthorn leaves vary with species. However, most have small, green, ovate to elliptical, sawtoothed leaves. Some species have leaves less than one inch long, like the Pensacola Hawthorn (Crataegus lacrimata), while others, like the Downy Hawthorn (Crataegus mollis), may have leaves that reach 4 inches long. 

Many species’ leaves also have shallow lobes. A few, like the Parsley Hawthorn (Crataegus marshallii), named for its deeply divided leaves, have more noticeable differences.

The leaves are usually held on short, slender leaf stalks and are alternately arranged. Hawthorn leaves tend to be hairy, especially when young. They usually turn red or bright orange in autumn.

Hawthorn Stems

Hawthorns may grow from 15 to 50 feet tall. They tend to be many-branched with rounded or flat-topped crowns. Their twigs are slender, multi-branched, and slightly zig-zag. The twigs and branches have long, thin spines or thorns. Hawthorn bark is usually gray or brownish. It’s often smooth on young trees and twigs and becomes scaly or develops longitudinal fissures or narrow ridges with age.

Hawthorn Flowers

Hawthorns usually bloom in May or June, and the flowers develop in clusters at the end of twigs. Hawthorns mostly have white flowers, but they may occasionally be pink. There are also many domesticated hawthorn cultivars with pink flowers. 

Hawthorn flowers usually have five rounded petals in a cup-like base of 5 narrow calyx lobes. Each flower usually has 5 to 20 stamens with yellow or pink anthers and a pistil with 1 to 5 styles.

Hawthorn Fruit

Hawthorn fruit usually matures to red in late summer or autumn and sometimes remains on the tree into winter. The fruits are small, usually under one inch wide, round, and form in clusters. The flower’s five calyx lobes usually persist at the tip of each fruit.

Each fruit usually contains 1 to 5 nutlets, each containing one seed. The nutlets stick together in the center, forming a stone-like structure. The sweet fruit has a dry, mealy texture on most species.

Hawthorn Look-Alikes

Hawthorn is sometimes mistaken for another wild edible, the Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis). However, Hackberry differs in a few notable ways:

• Hackberries tend to be taller, ranging from 50 to 70 feet and occasionally reaching 100 feet.
• Hackberries have light green ovate to ovate-lanceolate that often have wart-like growths.
• Hackberries have tiny, inconspicuous cream or greenish flowers.
• Hackberries ripen to orange, reddish-brown, or dark purple-brown and lack the calyx lobes found on hawthorns.
• Hackberries contain a single round seed.

Another look-alike is American Mountain Ash or Rowan (Sorbus sp.). However, it too differs in several noticeable ways:

• American Mountain Ash has pinnately compound leaves 6 to 8 inches long.
• American Mountain Ash twigs are stout, reddish-brown, and hairy. 
• American Mountain Ash flowers grow in crowded, upright clusters.
• American Mountain Ash has many-seeded berries with bitter pulp.

Lastly, hawthorns can be confused with wild apples and crabapples (Malus sp.). Apples are distinguished in the following ways:

• Crabapples tend to have fewer, smaller thorns, if any at all.
• Typically, the young stems of crabapples are coated in thick, white wooly hairs.
• Crabapple leaves are green above and pale below.
• Crabapples are usually 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter.
• Crabapples contain a central core with a tough membrane surrounding several small seeds. 

Ways to Use Hawthorns

Hawthorns are often overlooked even by foragers. These trees deserve your attention, though! Besides being tasty and abundant, hawthorns have incredible benefits, especially for heart health and digestion. Plus, they’re loaded with healthy antioxidants.

If you’re interested in herbalism, you can use the leaves, flower buds, blossoms, and berries in teas, tinctures, or syrups. You can also dry them for later use. 

If teas and tinctures aren’t your thing, hawthorns are easy to add to your diet in other ways. The young tender leaves make a decent salad green or potherb in early spring. The blossoms and flower buds also make delicious and beautiful additions to salads. 

However, most foragers find that the berries are the biggest prize, and people have been combing the woodlands and hedgerows for them every fall for thousands of years. 

The berries’ sweet flesh easily lends them to use in jams, jellies, fruit leathers, cakes, and cookies. They also make excellent sauces like hawthorn ketchup or vinaigrette for more savory meals. 

Traditionally, people have also used hawthorn berries in wild wines, ciders, and meads. You can also use them to flavor liqueurs if fermenting isn’t your thing.

The fruits of Mexican Hawthorn (Crataegus mexicana) are widely used in Mexico. People stuff them into pinatas they break as part of a pre-Christmas celebration called Las Posadas. They also cook them with other fruits to make a Christmas punch and mix them with sugar and chili powder to make a popular candy called rielitos.

Hawthorn berries are also widely used in China. People use them to make candy, alcoholic beverages, snacks, and sauces, including Cantonese sweet and sour sauce.

Nearly everywhere they grow, you will find a traditional recipe that includes hawthorns!

Hawthorn Recipes

• Easily preserve large amounts of hawthorns with our simple Hawthorn Jelly recipe.
• If you’re looking for a decadent treat for your sweet tooth, try this gorgeous Berry Brownie Batter Cake with Hawthorn Berry Buttercream Frosting from Gather Victoria.
• Spice things up with this Hawthorn Sweet Chili Sauce from Home is Where Our Heart Is.
• Reap the heart benefits of hawthorn berries with this Hawthorn Cordial recipe from Learning Herbs.
• Make a healthy snack for the kids or your next hiking trip with this Chinese Haw Leather (Healthy Hawthorn Candy) recipe from Earth to Veg.
• Easily enjoy hawthorn’s health benefits with this Hawthorn Berry Tea Recipe from Healthy Green Savvy.
• Try this classic Hawthorn Berry Ketchup or Haw Ketchup from Great British Chefs.

Edible Wild Fruit

These foraging guides will help you identify other edible wild fruit growing near you!

• Foraging Autumn Olive
• Foraging Hackberry
• Foraging Aronia Berries
• Foraging Chokecherries
• Foraging Solomon’s Plume