Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Green Hawthorn

Crataegus viridis

Also called southern hawthorn, green haw, tall hawthorn.

A southern bottomland hawthorn, often with few thorns, that bears white flowers in spring and small red fruit that holds on well into winter.

Showy flowersFall colorWildlife valueTolerates wet soilEdibleWinter interestStreet tree

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 20–35 ft
USDA zones: 4–8
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 21 states, north to Pennsylvania, south to Florida and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia
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Green hawthorn is a southern hawthorn, named by Linnaeus in 1753 for the shiny green leaves of a specimen sent from Virginia. It ranks among the most disease-resistant hawthorns, and its mottled gray bark flakes away to show orange beneath. Its selection 'Winter King' is probably the hawthorn most often sold, and nurseries carry it more than the wild species. Indiana lists the typical variety as threatened. Use it as a lawn or street tree, or beside a rain garden.

Size, growth and what to expect

Green hawthorn grows at a moderate pace, so our growth estimator gives it about a foot and a half a year. It makes a dense, rounded tree of 20 to 35 feet with a crown about as broad. Hawthorns grown from seed take 5 to 8 years to bear fruit.

Flat clusters of white flowers about half an inch across open in April and May. The fruit, a quarter to a third of an inch across, turns bright red or orange-red in September and October and often hangs on well into winter. The fruit is edible and can be made into jelly, but it is not of high quality. Birds eat it and nest among the branches, and bees and butterflies take nectar from the flowers. The leaves turn purple to red in fall.

It grows wild from tidewater Maryland to central Florida and southeastern Texas, and up the Mississippi Valley to Missouri and southern Illinois. It favors stream sides and moist, fertile bottomland woods.

How to grow Green Hawthorn

Green hawthorn does best in full sun and takes light shade. It grows in well-drained soil, clay and alkaline ground included, but very rich, moist soil can push soft, sappy growth. It takes drought and city air, and in the wild it grows in bottomlands and swamps. Set trees 20 feet apart, and keep each one 15 feet from a wall and 15 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. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall so that winter can chill it, and seedlings come up in spring. Each seedling grows a long taproot in its first year, so lift it from the seedbed within a year.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in dry spells for the next two. Deer seldom touch it, but rabbits gnaw young bark, so guard the trunk for the first few years. It takes pruning and can be shaped into a hedge. Prune in winter or early spring, as for other hawthorns.

Its flowers carry both male and female parts, and their unpleasant scent draws the midges that pollinate them. Some cedar-hawthorn rust can still appear where eastern red cedars grow, and fire blight can strike. Leaf spots, powdery mildew, cankers and scab are occasional problems. Borers, caterpillars, lace bugs, leafminers and scale are the usual pests.

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

Sources (11)