Plant Guide > Trees > Hawthorns > Long Spine Haw Tree

Long Spine Haw Tree

Long-spine Haw (C. macracantha, Koehne.)-Tree 10 to 15 feet high, or spreading shrub. Thorns numerous, curved, slender, 2 1/2 to 4 inches long, shining. Bark pale, close textured; branchlets reddish, lustrous. Leaves oval or obovate, 2 to 3 inches long, 1 to 2 inches wide, acute at both ends, shallowly lobed, and sharply serrate; dark green, often red when opening, leathery, lustrous in late summer; petioles short, red, stout.

Flowers, May, 3/4 inch across, in compound, velvety corymbs; stamens lo; anthers yellow. Fruits, September, falling before winter, in erect clusters, globular, pea size, hairy at tips; till ripe, then lustrous, crimson; flesh dry; nutlets 2 to 3, ridged on back, with irregular depressions on face. Preferred habitat, rich, uplands; limestone soil.

Distribution, from Montreal region through New England south to eastern Pennsylvania; westward to northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Uses: For ornamental planting.

Its many very long thorns make this a strikingly ornamental tree. The leaves are handsome, and the fruits though small are blood red and conspicuous.