Crataegus, commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, Mayflower, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate 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.
Crataegus monogyna, known as common hawthorn, one-seed hawthorn, or single-seeded hawthorn, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. It is native to Europe, northwestern Africa, and West Asia, but has been introduced in many other parts of the world.
Crataegus heterophylla, known as the various-leaved hawthorn, is of uncertain origin. Its original native range is not known, possibly it was the Caucasus of Western Asia. Suggestions that it originated in Southeast Europe may be based on misidentification.
Crataegus laevigata, known as the Midland hawthorn, English hawthorn, woodland hawthorn, or mayflower, is a species of hawthorn native to western and central Europe, from Great Britain and Spain east to the Czech Republic and Hungary. It is also present in North Africa. The species name is sometimes spelt C. levigata, but the original orthography is C. lævigata.
Crataegus pinnatifida, also known as mountain hawthorn, Chinese haw, Chinese hawthorn or Chinese hawberry, refers to a small to medium-sized tree, as well as the fruit of the tree. The fruit is bright red, 1.5 in (38 mm) in diameter.
The name Crataegus oxyacantha L. has been rejected as being of uncertain application, but is sometimes still used.
Crataegus collina is a type of hawthorn that is closely related to C. punctata, the dotted hawthorn, and sometimes considered to be the same species. A sample of C. collina and C. punctata has suggested that C. collina is polyploid, and C. punctata is diploid, but a wider sample is needed to confirm that this is generally the case.
Crataegus heldreichii is a species of flowering plant in the family Rosaceae. It is a hawthorn with red fruit that is native to Albania, Bulgaria, Greece and Yugoslavia.
Crataegus intricata is a species of hawthorn known by the common names Copenhagen hawthorn, Lange's thorn and thicket hawthorn. It is native to eastern Canada and the eastern United States. Its fruit are brown to red.
Crataegus × lavalleei, sometimes known as hybrid cockspurthorn or Lavallée's hawthorn, is a hybrid that arose between cultivated specimens of two species in the genus Crataegus (Hawthorn). It is an ornamental small tree with glossy dark green unlobed leaves that is used horticulturally.
Crataegus punctata is a species of hawthorn known by the common names dotted hawthorn or white haw that is native to most of the eastern United States and eastern Canada. While some sources claim it is the state flower of Missouri, the actual legislation does not identify an exact species. Furthermore, the Missouri Department of Conservation asserts the Crataegus mollis was specifically designated as the state flower.
Crataegus succulenta is a species of hawthorn known by the common names fleshy hawthorn, succulent hawthorn, and round-fruited cockspurthorn. It is "the most wide-ranging hawthorn in North America", native to much of southern Canada, and the United States as far south as Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In this wide area there are many variant forms that have received species names, but can also be considered as synonyms. It is thought to be the parent, along with Crataegus crus-galli, of the tetraploid species Crataegus persimilis.
Crataegus mexicana is a species of hawthorn known by the common names tejocote, manzanita, tejocotera and Mexican hawthorn. It is native to the mountains of Mexico and parts of Guatemala, and has been introduced in the Andes. The fruit of this species is one of the most useful among hawthorns.
Crataegus coccinea, the scarlet hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn around which there is considerable confusion because the name has been misapplied for a long time. It has been shown to be the same as C. pedicellata, and under the rules of botanical nomenclature, the older name should be used.
Crataegus macracantha, commonly called large-thorn hawthorn and aubépine á épines longues, is a woody flowering plant native to North America. It is the most widespread North American hawthorn, and highly variable, so it has often been split into other species.
Crataegus pycnoloba is a species of hawthorn in the Rosaceae family. It is native to the mountains of the northern and central Peloponnesus of Greece. The plant is a shrub or rarely a small tree. The fruit are red or dark reddish brown when immature, but later develop a yellow background colour.
Willard Webster Eggleston was an American botanist, employed by the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Plant Industry. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1891 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In his work on the taxonomy of Crataegus, now known to be complicated by apomixis, polyploidy, and hybridization, he aimed to simplify, counteracting the proliferation of species names that other botanists had produced.
Crataegus lassa, the sandhill hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn native to the southeastern United States. Small trees or large shrubs, they have a characteristic weeping or drooping habit, and grow in pine barrens, the Carolina sandhills region, the Florida longleaf pine sandhills, and similar areas with well-drained soils.
Ernest Jesse Palmer was a “collector-botanist” botanical taxonomist and plant collector. He began collecting in 1901, then collected professionally for the Missouri Botanical Garden starting in 1913 and for Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum from 1921, until 1948. He specialized in the genera Crataegus and Quercus.
Crataegus schuettei, the royal hawthorn or Schuette's hawthorn, is a species of shrubby tree in the family Rosaceae, native to northeastern North America; from Arkansas and North Carolina north to Ontario and Quebec. It is typically found growing in forest edges and old fields. Its ripe fruit is red.
