Photo: Eric Hunt, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Littlehip Hawthorn

Crataegus spathulata

Also called pasture hawthorn, small-fruited hawthorn, Crataegus microcarpa.

A slow, small tree prized for its peeling bark of gray, orange, olive and brown, with tiny spoon-shaped leaves, white spring flowers and red haws.

Showy flowersWildlife valueTolerates shadeDrought tolerantRareWinter interest

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–26 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, rich moist slopes, old fields and edges
Native range: 15 states, north to Illinois, south to Florida and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia
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Littlehip hawthorn is a small, spreading tree of the Southeast, from southern Virginia to Florida and west to east Texas, southern Missouri and southeastern Oklahoma. On old trunks its bark peels away in patches of gray, orange, olive green and brown, and its tiny spoon-shaped leaves give it a fine texture. It closely resembles our parsley hawthorn, whose anthers are red where this one's are pale. Kentucky lists it as endangered, and Missouri, at the northern edge of its range, counts it among its species of conservation concern. Set it at a woodland edge or in a lightly shaded yard, where its peeling bark can be seen up close.

Size, growth and what to expect

Littlehip hawthorn grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It is so slow that nurseries seldom offer it. It makes a small tree of 10 to 26 feet, often low-branched and many-stemmed, with a crown 15 to 20 feet wide that spreads in flat layers in the open.

Dense, flat-topped clusters of 20 to 30 white flowers, each about a third of an inch across, open in April, from March to May across its range. They have a somewhat fetid scent. The fruit is a small, bright red, oblong haw about a quarter inch long, ripe in September and October. Songbirds eat it, and the leaves feed the caterpillars of the gray hairstreak.

It grows in moist bottomlands, along streams and on rich slopes, and now and then on dry, rocky woodland in the Piedmont. It also turns up in brush over limestone, in fencerows and in pastures.

How to grow Littlehip Hawthorn

Littlehip hawthorn does best in part shade, and it also grows in sun or fairly deep shade. Any reasonably well-drained soil suits it, clay or sand. Once established it takes considerable drought. Its straight black thorns grow 1 to 2 inches long, so keep it back from paths. Set trees 15 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. 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.

Littlehip hawthorn carries two sets of chromosomes, and such hawthorns reject their own pollen, so plant two or more from different seed. Flies and midges drawn by the scent pollinate the flowers. Cedar-hawthorn rust and leaf miners can mar the leaves and slow its growth, but they seldom need treatment. Fire blight, leaf spot, lace bugs, tent caterpillars and other hawthorn pests also occur.

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

Sources (14)