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.
The name Crataegus oxyacantha L. has been rejected as being of uncertain application, but is sometimes still used.
Crataegus ambigua is a species of thorn (hawthorn) native to Western Asia and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Iran, Russia, and Turkey. It grows as a shrub or tree up to about 12 m in height. The fruit is dark red to purple or black, with one or two stones (pyrenes).
Crataegus azarolus is a species of hawthorn known by the common names azarole, azerole, and Mediterranean medlar. It is native to the Mediterranean Basin and is a common plant there, growing on sites comparable to those the European common hawthorn grows on. In the Arab countries it is the most common hawthorn species. When growing in the wild, the azerole bears plentiful crops of haw fruits, which are similar to the haws of the European common hawthorn, but more plump.
Crataegus × dsungarica is a hawthorn that is a hybrid between C. songarica in C. sect. Crataegus and C. wattiana in C. sect. Sanguineae. It has been placed in nothosection Crataeguineae. It has blackish purple fruit.
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 pentagyna, also called small-flowered black hawthorn, is a species of hawthorn native to southeastern Europe. Two subspecies are recognized, C. p. subsp. pentagyna and C. p. subsp. pseudomelanocarpa. The fruit are usually black, but are sometimes a handsome purple.
Crataegus rhipidophylla is a species of hawthorn which occurs naturally from southern Scandinavia and the Baltic region to France, the Balkan Peninsula, Turkey, Caucasia, and Ukraine. It is poorly known as a landscape and garden plant, but seems to have potential for those uses.
Crataegus tanacetifolia, the tansy-leaved thorn, is a species of hawthorn. It is native to Turkey where it occurs on dry slopes or in rocky places, usually on calcareous rocks.
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 × macrocarpa, is a hybrid between two species of Crataegus (hawthorn), C. laevigata and C. rhipidophylla, both in series Crataegus. A chemotaxonomic investigation comparing flavonoid patterns in C. × macrocarpa and its putative parent species corroborated their supposed relationship. It is sometimes confused with C. × media, the hybrid between C. monogyna and C. laevigata.
Crataegus songarica is an Asian species of hawthorn with black fruit that is sometimes used medicinally. It is closely related to Crataegus ambigua, a species that has red fruit.
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.
Crataegus × yosgatica or Crataegus yosgatica is a putative hybrid species of hawthorn. It was thought to be a cross between Crataegus monogyna and C. tanacetifolia. A 2014 molecular and morphological study reduced it to a synonym of Crataegus meyeri.
Crataegus pseudoheterophylla is a species of hawthorn found in Anatolia, the Transcaucasus, Iran and Afghanistan. They are trees or shrubs that are typically found on scrubby mountain slopes.
