An eye-catching swathe of red haws (hawthorn fruit) on Lake Shore just east of Leslie (taken Dec. 6, 2013)
This stretch of hawthorns I often walk past keeps the ruby-red fruits well into winter. Have you noticed them? They’re well placed for show against the dark brown SolarWall on the City garage next to Loblaws. The leafless trees were photographed last year around this date. And look at all the fruit!
I’m guessing, thanks to an evening of obsessive web browsing, that these are Washington hawthorn (also called Washington thorn – both with the species name Crataegus phaenopyrum). Some good info from the Missouri Botanical Garden here, good pictures from Online Plant Guide, and from a Canadian source I just discovered, Michael Pascoe’s Canada Plants. Can you confirm my guess?
My guess is based partly on the pendant, persistent and abundant clusters of red haws. While these are beginning to dry, you can tell they were once quite glossy.
This shot gives you a good look at the thorns. Haws plus thorns equal hawthorns. These ones are long. Having elbowed my way into the tree’s crown to get this photo, I can also attest to their sharpness.
Looking east lets you appreciate their massed beauty.
A few weeks earlier, the same view would have looked something like this.
In close-up, the leaf shape is somewhat variable – not consistently three-lobed. Great colour, though.
Helen Battersby is a gardener, a writer, a garden speaker, and a power-walker, not always in that order!
5 comments
Yes indeed. a row of beautiful Washington thorn trees. I love their sunset foliage colours in autumn.
How pretty would these look with a dusting of snow. (Not the wallop we received today.)
Hello there Helen girl ! Thank you so much for thinking of me with the "Fling" .. I so wished I could manage it but the medical issues I have are so debilitating at times (and extremely unpredictable as well) it is a nightmare .. I would have loved to have met you and the other girls that have been asking me if I was going to come .. makes me crazy to miss such a wonderful opportunity like that. I love this post on those fantastic hawthorns and the berries they produce .. I want to have a specimen shrub that I can train as a small tree with berries like that .. I have a cotoneaster that I trained as a column and it can look gorgeous with those almost black berries with the coloured leaves. I have been neglecting my blog … guilt guilt ! I have to post something soon or people will think I have fallen off the planet ? haha Thank you again for thinking of me I truly appreciate it !! Joy : ) We have quit a bit of snow here for the moment .. good ground water !!
Beautiful photos!
Photos are amazing. Thorn trees are so beautiful in autumn.
5 comments
Yes indeed. a row of beautiful Washington thorn trees. I love their sunset foliage colours in autumn.
How pretty would these look with a dusting of snow. (Not the wallop we received today.)
Hello there Helen girl !
Thank you so much for thinking of me with the "Fling" .. I so wished I could manage it but the medical issues I have are so debilitating at times (and extremely unpredictable as well) it is a nightmare .. I would have loved to have met you and the other girls that have been asking me if I was going to come .. makes me crazy to miss such a wonderful opportunity like that.
I love this post on those fantastic hawthorns and the berries they produce .. I want to have a specimen shrub that I can train as a small tree with berries like that .. I have a cotoneaster that I trained as a column and it can look gorgeous with those almost black berries with the coloured leaves.
I have been neglecting my blog … guilt guilt ! I have to post something soon or people will think I have fallen off the planet ? haha
Thank you again for thinking of me I truly appreciate it !!
Joy : )
We have quit a bit of snow here for the moment .. good ground water !!
Beautiful photos!
Photos are amazing. Thorn trees are so beautiful in autumn.