Hawthorn Berries Apple – Here is a wonderful fruit that appears in Lebanon about August; in North America there are apparently over 800 varieties of this tree (aubépine in French) and yet I have never seen anyone eat the fruit! The hawthorn tree bears pretty white flowers about May; a few months later, they turn into pretty reddish berries. The tree can live over 400 years.
It is an excellent remedy for the treatment of heart problems such as high blood pressure, heart palpitations, angina pectoris, anxiety and poor circulation in the legs. It has been used in herbal medicine for thousands of years.
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Hawthorn Berries Apple
Besides being eaten as such, it is also dried in the sun and drunk as a tea with other herbs in winter. Also, jam is made in the fall, before the birds eat it all!
Hawthorn Berries (zaaroor)
My name is Joumana Accad and I was born and raised in Beirut. I finished high school in France and moved to the US in 1979. I am a mother of two grown children and a former school teacher, pastry chef, caterer and translator. Taste of Beirut started as a blog in 2009 and its main purpose was to share my beloved Lebanese heritage with the world through recipes, anecdotes and cultural information. Fruits of four different species of Crataegus (clockwise from top left: C. coccinea, C. punctata, C. ambigua and C. douglasii)
Mayflower, or hawberry, is a genus of several hundred species of shrubs and trees in the Rosaceae family,
Native to the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere in Europe, Asia, North Africa and North America. The name “hawthorn” was originally applied to species native to northern Europe, particularly the common hawthorn C. monogyna, and the unmodified name is often used in Great Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the tire gus and the related Asian gus Rhaphiolepis.
The Geric epithet, Crataegus, is derived from the Greek kratos “strong” because of the great strength of the wood, and akis “sharp”, referring to the thorns of some species.
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The name haw, originally an old term for hedge (from the Anglo-Saxon term hunghorn, “a fce with thorns”),
With small cluster fruits and (usually) spiny branches. The most common type of bark is smooth gray in young individuals, developing shallow longitudinal fissures with narrow ridges in older trees. Thorns are small branches with sharp tips that arise either from other branches or from the trunk and are usually 1–3 cm (1 ⁄2–1 in) long (recorded as up to
). The leaves grow spirally arranged on long shoots, and in clusters on spur shoots on branches or twigs. The leaves of most species have lobed or toothed margins and are somewhat variable in shape. The fruit, sometimes known as a “haw”, is berry-like, but structurally a tissue containing from one to five carpels resembling the “pits” of plums, peaches, etc., which are drupe fruits from the same subfamily.
The number of species in the gus depends on the taxonomic interpretation. Some botanists of the past recognized 1000 or more species,
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Gus probably first appeared in the Eocene, the ancestral area probably being eastern North America and Europe, which at the time remained closely connected due to the North Atlantic Land Bridge. The oldest known leaves of the Gus are from the Eocene of North America, the oldest leaves from Europe are from the Oligocene.
Hawthorn provides food and shelter for many species of birds and mammals, and the flowers are important to many nectar-feeding insects. Hawthorn is also used as a food plant by the larvae of a large number of lepidopteran species, such as the small egg moth, E. lanestris. Haws are important for winter wildlife, especially thrushes and waxwings; these birds eat haws and spread the seeds in their droppings.
The “Haws” or fruits of the common hawthorn, C. monogyna, are edible. In the UK, they are sometimes used to make a homemade jelly or wine.
The leaves are edible, and if picked in the spring when they are still young, they are best used in salads.
Wyoming’s Native Crataegus Tree
The young leaves and flower buds, which are also edible, are known as “bread and cheese” in the rural gland.
In the southern United States, the fruits of three native species are known collectively as mayhaws and are made into jellies that are considered a delicacy. The Kutai people of northwestern North America used red and black hawthorn berries for food.
On Manitoulin Island, Ontario, some red-fruited species are called forest. During colonization, European settlers ate these fruits during the winter as the only remaining food source. People born on the island are now called “haweaters”.
The fruits of Crataegus mexicana are known in Mexico as tejocotes and are eaten raw, cooked or in jam during the winter. They are stuffed into broken piñatas during the traditional pre-Christmas celebration known as Las Posadas. They are also cooked with other fruits to make a Christmas punch. The mixture of tejocote paste, sugar, and chili powder produces a popular Mexican candy called rielitos, which is made by several brands.
Chilli Hawthorn Dipping Sauce
The 4 cm fruits of Crataegus pinnatifida (Chinese hawthorn) are tart, bright red and resemble small marre fruits. They are used to make many types of Chinese snacks, including haw flakes and being covered in sugar syrup and placed on a tanghulu stick. The fruits, which are called 山楂 shān zhā in Chinese, are also used to make jams, jellies, juices, liquors and other beverages; these could in turn be used in other dishes (for example, many older Cantonese sweet and sour sauce recipes call for shānzhā jam). In South Korea, a liquor called sansachun (산사춘) is made from the fruit.
In Iran, Crataegus fruits (including Crataegus azarolus var. aronia as well as other species) are known as zâlzâlak and are eaten raw as a snack or made into a jam known by the same name.
A 2008 Cochrane Collaboration meta-analysis of previous studies concluded that there was evidence of “a significant match in symptom control and physiological outcomes” for a hawthorn extract used as an adjunct in the treatment of chronic heart failure.
Concluded that “Crataegus [hawthorn] preparations hold significant potential as a useful remedy in the treatment of cardiovascular disease.” The review indicated the need for further study of the best doses and concluded that although “many different theoretical interactions between Crataegus and orthodox drugs have been postulated…none have [yet] been substantiated.
Solaray Hawthorn Berry 1050mg
Several species of hawthorn have been used in traditional medicine. The products used are often derived from C. monogyna, C. laevigata or related species of Crataegus, “collectively known as hawthorn”, without necessarily distinguishing between these species.
The dried fruits of Crataegus pinnatifida (called shān zhā in Chinese) are used in traditional Chinese medicine, primarily as a digestive aid. A closely related species, Crataegus cuneata (Japanese hawthorn, called sanzashi in Japanese) is used in a similar way. Other species (especially Crataegus laevigata) are used in herbal medicine, where the plant is believed to strengthen cardiovascular function.
The Kutai people of northwestern North America used black hawthorn berries (Kutai language: kaǂa; approximate pronunciation: kasha) for food and red hawthorn berries (Kutai language: ǂupǂi; approximate pronunciation: shupshi) in traditional medicine.
Many species and hybrids are used as ornamental and street trees. Common hawthorn is used extensively in Europe as a hedge plant. During the British agricultural revolution of the eighth and nineteenth centuries, hawthorn seedlings were mass-propagated in nurseries to create the new field boundaries required by the Enclosure Acts.
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Several cultivars of Midland hawthorn C. laevigata have been selected for their pink or red flowers. Hawthorn is among the most recommended trees for water conservation landscapes.
Hawthorn can be used as a rootstock in grafting practice. It is compatible with grafting with Mespilus and pear and makes a hardier rootstock than quince, but the hawthorn’s prickly pinching habit can be problematic.
Seedlings of Crataegus monogyna have been used to graft several species onto the same trunk, such as pink hawthorn, heather and sedge, resulting in trees bearing pink and white flowers in May and fruit in summer. “Sliver budding” was also performed on hawthorn trunks to have branches of several varieties on the same tree. Such trees can be found in Vigo, Spain and in northwestern France (mainly in Brittany).
The Scots saying “Don’t throw any oot till Mey’s oot” conveys a warning not to shed any clothes (clothes) before summer has fully arrived and the Mayflowers (hawthorn flowers) are in full bloom.
Why Birds Can Eat Hawthorns
The custom of using the flowering branches for decorative purposes on the 1st of May is of very early origin, but since the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752, the tree has rarely been in full flower in gland before the second week of that month. In the Scottish Highlands, flowers can appear as late as mid-June. The hawthorn was considered the emblem of hope, and its branches are said to have been carried by the ancient Greeks in wedding processions, and to have been used by them.