Fruit

Hawthorn (common and Midland)

Crataegus monogyna Jacq.; Crataegus laevigata (Poir.) DC. · may, whitethorn, quickthorn, haws · Polish: Głóg (jednoszyjkowy i dwuszyjkowy)

Edible

Photo: Zsoldos Márton / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

How to identify it

Shrub or small tree with thorns.
Leaves lobed (in common hawthorn deeply cut, with 3–7 lobes).
White flowers in flat-topped clusters with an unpleasant smell (May–June).
Small red fruits with one stone (common hawthorn) or 2–3 stones (Midland hawthorn).

Where it grows

Woodland edges, fertile broadleaved woodland, open oak woods and oak-hornbeam woods, scrub among fields and along roads.

In the kitchen and the home medicine cabinet

The fruits can be picked from mid-August, ideally ripe but still firm. Nalewka, preserve, jelly, syrup and even soup; the fruits and flowers are dried for infusions.

Caution Pick fruits that are ripe but still firm, away from roads. Picking is prohibited in national parks and nature reserves.