Photo: Charles Edward Faxon, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mayhaw

Crataegus aestivalis

Also called eastern mayhaw, May hawthorn, apple hawthorn, summer haw.

A thorny native hawthorn of southern swamps that flowers white in late winter and ripens tart red fruit in May, the fruit of mayhaw jelly.

EdibleTolerates wet soilShowy flowersWildlife valueStreet treeErosion control

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–40 ft
USDA zones: 4–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, floodplain forests, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 7 states, north to Virginia, south to Florida and west to Mississippi
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Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia
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Mayhaw is a hawthorn of the southeastern Coastal Plain, from North Carolina to north Florida and west to Mississippi. It grows in ponds, sinks and swampy ground that floods for part of the year. Southerners have long gathered the fruit from the wild for jelly, and about a dozen selections now grow in orchards. This is the eastern mayhaw. The western mayhaw of the Gulf states is a separate species, Crataegus opaca. Along streams, mayhaw is used to keep the banks from eroding. Plant it at a pond edge or in a low spot that floods now and then, for early bloom and jelly fruit.

Size, growth and what to expect

Mayhaw is a slow grower, so our growth estimator gives it about a foot a year. It makes a round-topped small tree or a large shrub of 10 to 40 feet, often armed with thorns. Orchard trees are long-lived and can spread 30 feet across in 20 years.

White flowers up to an inch across open in February and March, earlier than most hawthorns, in clusters of two to four. The fruit ripens mostly in early May, which gave the tree its name, and on some trees as late as June. Each fruit is an apple-like pome a third to three quarters of an inch across, red or sometimes yellow, fragrant, acid and juicy. Birds, rodents and other small mammals eat it.

Washington hawthorn flowers in June and holds its small fruit into winter. Mayhaw blooms in late winter, bears larger fruit in spring and grows in wet ground. Wild trees 30 to 40 years old have yielded about 66 pounds of fruit each in Georgia.

How to grow Mayhaw

Mayhaw grows best in full sun and takes light shade. It tolerates wet, very acid soil, but it grows better on a moist, well-drained, slightly acid one. A pond edge or a low spot with some drainage suits it. 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. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in early fall a quarter inch deep, for seedlings the next spring. For spring sowing, hold it damp in the refrigerator for six to eight weeks first.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in dry spells for the next two. Deer browse the young twigs and leaves and rabbits gnaw the bark, so guard each sapling with wire for its first three years. Train it to one trunk, with the first branches 18 inches or more off the ground. Prune in winter to open the crown to light, which brings more fruit.

Its flowers carry both male and female parts, and bees work them in late winter. Plum curculio can badly damage the fruit, and hawthorn lace bugs, borers and scales feed on the tree. Quince rust is the most common disease, and it has been severe on some wild mayhaws in south Georgia. Cedar-apple rust and fire blight also occur, though fire blight is seldom serious.

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

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