CRATAEGUS MONOGYNA

Family and Genus:- See- ROSACEAE

Common Names:- Hawthorn

Homotypic Synonyms:- Crataegus aegeica, Crataegus azarella, Crataegus

laciniata, Crataegus panachaica

Meaning:- Crataegus (Gr) Strong. A name used by Greek philosopher

Theophrastus for the hawthorn's timber.

Monogyna (Gr) With a single ovary.

General description:- Deciduous shrub or small tree up to 10 m; spines 7-20 mm.

Twigs:-

1) Glabrous or sparsely villous.

Leaves:-

1) Obovate to rhombic, cuneate, discolorous;

a) of the flowering shoots with 1-3 pairs of subentire or sparsely toothed lobes.

b) lobes, 3-7, oblong, acute or subobtuse,

2) Stipules, entire, lanceolate-subulate.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence, 4-15-flowered, lax.

2) Sepals, deflexed, narrowly triangular.

3) Petals, 5, 3-7 mm.

4) Styles, 1(-2).

Fruit:-

1) Berry, 6-11 x 5-10 mm, subglobose to broadly cylindrical, red; crowned by

deflexed sepals, which are usually slightly longer than wide.

2) Pyrenes, 1(-2).

Key features:-

1) Leaf-lobes, acute to subobtuse; entire or with a few acute teeth.

2) Stipules, entire.

3) Ripe fruit, 6-10 mm, dark or bright red.

Click here for a glossary of terms used

Habitat:- Openings in mixed forest, scrubland vegetation and mixed scrub, field

margins, hedges, on various substrates. 0-1000(-1600) m.

Distribution:- Widespread and common throughout the Mediterranean. Widespread

and common on Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-June.

Photos by:- Steve Lenton