Photo: Marian Ellis Rowan, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Blueberry Hawthorn

Crataegus brachyacantha

Also called blue haw, blueberry haw, hog haw, pomette bleue.

A tall southern hawthorn whose fruit wears a waxy blue bloom in late summer, with white spring flowers and brilliant orange and red fall color.

Wildlife valueFall colorTolerates wet soilShowy flowers

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 20–50 ft
USDA zones: 4–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats, old fields and edges
Native range: 7 states, north to Oklahoma, south to Louisiana and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas
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Blueberry hawthorn is a tall hawthorn of Louisiana and the neighboring states, named for its fruit, which is dusted with a blue wax in late summer. It is the only Texas hawthorn with blue fruit. Under the wax the fruit ripens black in fall. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Mississippi, and it has vanished from its one known site in Georgia. Give it a moist corner of the yard or a spot near a pond, where its fall color and its fruit for birds can be enjoyed.

Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, so our growth estimator treats it as a medium grower, like most of our hawthorns, about a foot and a half a year. It is among the tallest hawthorns, usually 20 to 33 feet and at times up to 50, with plated, dark gray-brown bark.

Clusters of 15 to 25 white flowers, each about half an inch across, open in April, sometimes into May, and the petals turn orange as they age. The fruit is waxy blue in late August and ripens black from September into November, a third to a half inch across. Its flesh is thin, mealy and bitter, but many birds eat it, and so do deer, bears, raccoons, foxes and rabbits. The shiny leaves turn a brilliant orange, bronze and red in fall.

It grows wild in wet prairies, on river flats, on moist, well-drained ground and at woodland edges. It is locally common in Louisiana, and it reaches Arkansas, Oklahoma, east Texas and Mississippi.

How to grow Blueberry Hawthorn

Blueberry hawthorn grows in full sun or part shade, and it takes more shade than most hawthorns. It likes a rich, moist soil, and it grows wild in wet prairies and on river flats. Its short thorns curve back, and some trees have none. Set trees 20 feet apart, and keep each one 20 feet from a wall. Old trees can pass 40 feet, so keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. It is sown as other hawthorns are. Sow the cleaned seed outdoors in fall. Some seedlings may wait until the second spring.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in dry spells for the next two. Deer browse hawthorn leaves and twigs and rabbits gnaw young bark, so cage each sapling for its first three years.

Some blueberry hawthorns carry two sets of chromosomes and need another tree's pollen, while others carry three and can set seed alone. Plant two or more for a reliable crop. Hawthorns in general can suffer from rusts that spend part of their life on eastern redcedar, so keep it away from redcedars.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (11)