Crataegus (), Sunset Western Garden Book, 1995:606–607 commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn,I remember the kitchen as being large and airy. 1974, A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe, Collins, London thornapple,Voss, E. G. 1985. Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornaceae). Cranbrook Institute of Science and University of Michigan Herbarium, Ann Arbor, Michigan. May-tree,Graves, Robert. The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, 1948, amended and enlarged 1966, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. whitethorn, Mayflower or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of and trees in the family Rosaceae, native plant to temperateness regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America. The name "hawthorn" was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn C. monogyna, and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian genus Rhaphiolepis.
[[File:Vruchten van een meidoorn (Crataegus), 04-10-2024. (d.j.b.) 03.jpg|thumb| Fruits of a hawthorn (Crataegus)]]
The genus is classified into sections which are further divided into series. Series Montaninsulae has not yet been assigned to a section. The sections are:
On Manitoulin Island, Ontario, some red-fruited species are called hawberries. During colonisation, European settlers ate these fruits during the winter as the only remaining food supply. People born on the island are now called "".
The fruits of C. mexicana are known in Mexico as tejocotes and are eaten raw, cooked, or in jam during the winter. They are stuffed in the piñatas broken during the traditional pre-Christmas celebration known as Las Posadas. They are also cooked with other fruits to prepare a Christmas punch. The mixture of tejocote paste, sugar and chili powder produces a popular Mexican candy called rielitos, which is manufactured by several brands.
The 4 cm fruits of the species C. pinnatifida (Chinese hawthorn) are tart, bright red and resemble small Malus fruits. They are used to make many kinds of Chinese snacks, such as tanghulu — coated in sugar syrup and skewered – and haw flakes. The fruits, which are called 山楂 shān zhā in Chinese, are also used to produce jams, jellies, juices, alcoholic beverages and other drinks; these could in turn be used in other dishes (for instance, many older recipes for Cantonese sweet and sour sauce call for shānzhā jam). In South Korea, a liquor called sansachun (산사춘) is made from the fruits.
In Iran, the fruits of Crataegus (including Crataegus azarolus var. aronia, as well as other species) are known as zâlzâlak and eaten raw as a snack, or made into a jam known by the same name.
The fruits of North America's C. greggiana are made into preserves.
found in hawthorn include , , oligomeric proanthocyanidins and .
The Kutenai people of northwestern North America used black hawthorn fruit (Kutenai language: kaǂa; approximate pronunciation: kasha) for food, and red hawthorn fruit (Kutenai language: ǂupǂi; approximate pronunciation: shupshi) in traditional medicine.
of Crataegus monogyna have been used to graft multiple species on the same trunk, such as pink hawthorn, pear tree and medlar, the result being trees which give pink and white flowers in May and fruits during the summer. "Chip budding" has also been performed on hawthorn trunks to have branches of several varieties on the same tree. Such trees can be seen in Vigo, Spain, and in the northwest of France (mainly in Brittany).
The custom of employing the flowering branches for decorative purposes on 1 May is of very early origin, but since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the tree has rarely been in full bloom in England before the second week of that month. In the Scottish Highlands, the flowers may be seen as late as the middle of June. The hawthorn has been regarded as the emblem of hope, and its branches are stated to have been carried by the ancient Greeks in wedding processions, and to have been used by them to deck the altar of Hymenaios. The supposition that the tree was the source of Jesus's crown of thorns doubtless gave rise to the tradition among the French peasantry (current as late as 1911) that it utters groans and cries on Good Friday, and probably also to the old popular superstition in Great Britain and Ireland that ill luck attended the uprooting of hawthorns. Branches of Glastonbury thorn ( C. monogyna 'Biflora', sometimes called C. oxyacantha var. praecox), which flowers both in December and in spring, were formerly highly valued in England, on account of the legend that the tree was originally the staff of Joseph of Arimathea.
Robert Graves, in his book The White Goddess, traces and reinterprets many European legends and myths in which the whitethorn (hawthorn), also called the May-tree, is central.
It was once said to heal the broken heart. In Ireland, the red fruit is, or was, called the Johnny MacGorey or Magory.
Serbs folklore that spread across Balkan notes that hawthorn (Serbian language глог or glog) is essential to kill , and stakes used for their slaying must be made from the wood of the thorn tree.
In Gaels folklore, hawthorn (in Scottish Gaelic, sgitheach and in Irish, sceach) 'marks the entrance to the Other World' and is strongly associated with the Fairy.Campbell, John Gregorson (1900, 1902, 2005) The Gaelic Otherworld. Edited by Ronald Black. Edinburgh, Birlinn Ltd. p. 345 Lore has it that it is very unlucky to cut the tree at any time other than when it is in bloom; however, during this time, it is commonly cut and decorated as a May bush (see Beltane).Kevin Danaher (1972) The Year in Ireland: Irish Calendar Customs Dublin, Mercier. pp. 86–127 This warning persists to modern times; folklorist Bob Curran has questioned whether the ill luck of the DeLorean Motor Company was associated with the destruction of a fairy thorn to make way for a production facility.
The superstitious dread of harming hawthorn trees prevalent in Britain and Ireland may also be connected to an old belief that hawthorns, and more especially 'lone thorns' (self-seeded specimens standing in isolation from other trees) originate from lightning or and give protection from lightning strikes.Hope, Alec Derwent, A Midsummer Eve's Dream: variations on a theme by William Dunbar pub. The Viking Press, New York 1970.
Hawthorn trees are often found beside ; at these types of holy wells, they are sometimes known as rag trees, for the strips of cloth which are tied to them as part of healing rituals.Healy, Elizabeth (2002) In Search of Ireland's Holy Wells. Dublin, Wolfhound Press pp. 56–7, 69, 81 'When all fruit fails, welcome haws' was once a common expression in Ireland.
According to a medieval legend, the Glastonbury thorn, C. monogyna 'Biflora', which flowers twice annually, was supposed to have Miracle grown from a walking stick planted by Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury in Somerset, England. The original tree was destroyed in the sixteenth century during the English Reformation, but several cultivars have survived. Since the reign of King James I, it has been a Christmas custom to send a sprig of Glastonbury thorn flowers to the British monarch, which is used to decorate the royal family's dinner table.Palmer, Martin and Palmer, Nigel ( The Spiritual Traveler: England, Scotland, Wales : the Guide to Sacred Sites and Pilgrim Routes in Britain, Hidden Spring, (p. 200)
In the Victorian era, the hawthorn represented hope in the language of flowers.
The hawthorn – species unspecified – is the state flower of Missouri. The legislation designating it as such was introduced by Sarah Lucille Turner, one of the first two women to serve in the Missouri House of Representatives.
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