In my local park there is a tree crowned with amber-red haws, big enough to pluck and suck off the flesh. They taste sweet, with a hint of apple – a little mealy but delicious enough.
This is the eastern haw, Crataegus orientalis. It has everything a small tree should: flowers in spring, colour in autumn, and fruit that attracts a host of small birds to flit around its branches.
It doesn’t mind if the conditions are windswept, where it becomes sculptured and craggy. It has a spreading habit with slightly pendulous thorny branches, but you can slowly prune it into a shape that fits your space. The leaves are deeply lobed dark green with a woolly bloom that makes them appear silvery in spring, turning buttery yellow and bronze in autumn.
The flowers are chalk white with pink anthers, followed by large reddish fruit in autumn. The haws often persist well into winter, hanging like Christmas ornaments.
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