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

Parsley Hawthorn

Crataegus marshallii

Also called parsley haw, parsleyleaf hawthorn, parsley-leaf thorn, Crataegus apiifolia.

A small southern hawthorn with leaves cut fine as parsley, white flowers with red anthers in early spring, peeling bark and glossy scarlet fruit.

Showy flowersFall colorWildlife valueTolerates wet soilEdibleWinter interest

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 7–25 ft
USDA zones: 4–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, the forest understory, 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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Parsley hawthorn is a small tree of the Southeast, from Virginia to Florida and west to Texas, Oklahoma and southern Illinois. Its small leaves are cut deep like parsley, and they may be the most ornamental of any American hawthorn. Its bark flakes away in patches of yellow, gray and brown. Botanists have called it a four-season tree that deserves wider planting. The species name honors Humphry Marshall, an American botanist of the 1700s. Kentucky lists it as endangered. Plant it by a pond or stream, or at a woodland edge, where its lacy leaves can be seen up close.

Size, growth and what to expect

Parsley hawthorn grows at a medium pace, so our growth estimator gives it about a foot and a half a year. It makes a small tree or a many-stemmed shrub of 7 to 25 feet and about 15 feet wide. Hawthorns grown from seed take 5 to 8 years to bear fruit.

Clusters of three to ten white flowers, half an inch to two thirds of an inch across, open in March and April. The fruit is a glossy red haw a sixth to a third of an inch long, ripe from September into November. The anthers are deep rose to red. The haws are edible. Few birds favor them, so they hang on the tree a long while. The flowers feed many insects, and the tree hosts the caterpillars of the gray hairstreak. Its leaves turn orange and red in fall.

It grows wild in floodplain and upland woods, clearings, woodland edges and fence lines, in light shade or in the open. It is common across the Southeast.

How to grow Parsley Hawthorn

Parsley hawthorn grows in full sun or part shade. Give it a moist clay or sandy loam. It adapts to ordinary garden soil and takes a season of poor drainage. Its thorns are slender but sharp, so keep it back from paths where children play. Set trees 12 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. Seed needs a long warm spell and then a long cold one. Sow cleaned seed outdoors in fall, and expect seedlings the second spring or later. For a spring start indoors, keep it damp at room temperature for four months, then in the refrigerator for three to ten months.

Water weekly through the first summer, and in dry spells for the next two. Rabbits gnaw young bark and deer browse hawthorn twigs, so cage each sapling for its first three years. Prune in winter or early spring, as for other hawthorns.

Its flowers carry both male and female parts, and native bees visit them. Parsley hawthorn needs pollen from another tree to set fruit, so plant two or more from different seed. Native bees work the flowers. It has no serious pests or diseases, and it takes some heat.

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

Sources (8)

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