Medicinal Properties

• First-century physicians found the berries of the hawthorn useful for heart ailments. During the 1800s they were used for circulatory and respiratory illnesses. Today hawthorn is still used by practitioners, but the leaves and flowers are more often used than the berries. According the University of Maryland Medical Center, hawthorn improves heart function, making it useful for patients with heart failure. It is also used for shortness of breath caused by exercise, stops palpitations of the heart and increases energy for those with fatigue due to heart issues. There is some indication that hawthorn relieves high blood pressure. Anyone with medical issues should consult a doctor before taking capsules or making the bitter tea, as it can interact with other medications.
  
  

Kitchen Uses

• Hawthorn berries are useful in the kitchen. Many varieties, including Crataegus aestivalis, C. rufula and C opaca, are collected in May. Commercial growers place tarps on the ground under the trees and shake them to loosen the fruit, which falls into the tarps. Hawthorne is tolerant of wet soil and sometimes grows in swampy areas. Sometimes the fruit is shaken from the tree into watery areas. The berries do not bruise when falling into water and are easily collected because they float. Haws make a popular jam and jelly produced mostly in the southern United States, and they are also made into wine.
  
  

Landscape Uses

• The white flowers of the hawthorn are very beautiful and make for a show during the spring along with crabapple and flowering cherry trees. They prefer well-drained, moist soil with a pH of 6.0 to 6.5. Some smaller varieties work well in hedges or screens; the larger types are better trained into trees. Hawthorn has multiple trunks, but is easily formed into a tree by keeping one main trunk and cutting off the others. It is often trained into a vase shape with several inches of the bottom branches removed to make it easier to get a mower underneath. They tend to become dense and need to be pruned in order to improve air circulation and open up the center to the sun. The tree does have small thorns, but they are rarely a problem because of their diminutive size.
  
  

Uses for Wildlife

• Hedges provide shelter to smaller animals and birds, keeping large ones out that do not like to be poked with small thorns. Hawthorn berries are well loved by many species of birds and actually attracts them to the yard. It is also food for the gray hairstreak butterfly during the caterpillar stage.