WASHINGTON THORN FALL COLOR AND FRUIT

WAWHINGTON HAWTHORN

SMALL, APPLE-LIKE FRUIT, CALLED "HAWS"

Saturday, 8:45 AM.  39 degrees F, wind N, mostly calm with light gusts. The sky is cloudy, the humidity 87% after a trace or more of rain last night.  The barometer has been steady but is beginning to trend down, now at 30.25".  It looks like it will be a cool, cloudy, damp, unsettled day.
   With the season's colored leaves falling even as I write, some mention should be made of those trees that hang onto their  leaves 'till the last. Cxrataegus phanopyrum,  'the Washington thorn, is such a plant.  At this point the hawthorns still have their leaves, and many also have an abundance of red, very decorative apple-like fruits. The hawthorns typically bear clusters of small white flowers in the spring, that have a very distinctive aroma. The hawthorn "haws" are not really edible, being very mealy and mostly tasteless.  They are valuable wildlife food, however, and the dense branching and thorns provide great cover for small birds.  Hawthorn berries have long been used in herbal medicine as a heart tonic.  I have used hawthorn berries for many years.
   Most hawthorns are dangerously thorny, and the Washington thorn also has numerous but relatively  small thorns.