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| My two hawthorns on left. |
In response to my previous tree-following post, several readers (or perhaps one in multiple guises) suggested the trees I’m following are Russian Hawthorns, Crataegus ambigua. This species has distinctive deeply-lobed leaves, and is a popular landscaping tree for our climate.
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Russian Hawthorn, Crataegus ambigua, is native to southern Russia (source).
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I made a quick visit to the Art Building to see what the two trees I'm following were up to, and to compare leaves. Others of the same kind grow nearby, and they had immature fruit, confirming they're hawthorns. The leaves are indeed deeply lobed.
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| Another hawthorn tree nearby, covered in young fruit. |
So why did I never see flowers on my trees? This time I looked more carefully, and found a cluster of fruit on one. For some reason, these two trees don't invest much in reproduction, at least not this year.
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| On one of my trees, I saw one branch with fruit. |
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| Another view of same branch. |
In the corner behind, I spotted an oak seedling. Had some creature stashed an acorn here? From where?
Then I had to flee. The mosquitos were terrible, and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt! And it was Sunday, so the building was locked—no refuge, and no art this month.
This is my monthly contribution to the virtual tree-following gathering kindly hosted by The Squirrelbasket. Considering joining us—always interesting, even with mosquitos.
This will be an interesting one to follow. My parents had Hawthorne trees in their neighborhood in the Green Bay, Wis., area many years ago. They were very nice trees. I'm not sure what species they were, though.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting (to me) that your hawthorns didn't flower (or at least not very much) as mine don't either. I wonder why, I had wondered with mine if it was temperature, as it does not get very warm here. But that is not the case for yours and as you show other hawthorns have flowered. Curious and curiouser.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice now you know what the trees are. The leaves on your hawthorn are more deeply lobed than on mine. I was surprised by how many different hawthorns there are.
Frances
Frances, when I was looking at candidate species (online), I also was surprised by the many hawthorn species--and lots of variation within single species.
DeleteYour trees have a quite artistic backdrop in that first picture, actually.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the amount of flowering depends on the weather?
Our common or garden hawthorns flowered in May, although as they are blossomy I don't seem to remember the flowers lasting long.
Your red-topped "haws" look pretty, though.
And a bonus oak...
All the best :)
Thanks, Pat. The same species nearby did bloom and produce fruit ... hmmm, puzzling indeed. They bloomed in May also, but I missed it.
DeleteIt looks like an attractive tree. Is it native, or introduced? Do you normally have mosquitoes? It seems like Wyoming might be too arid for such nonsense. We have plenty of our own!
ReplyDeleteHi Tina. It's native to Asia and eastern Europe. It seems to be a popular landscaping tree here based on what I found on the Web. Yes, we have mosquitos! It's a fairly short season, fortunately.
DeleteIt's a new kind of hawthorn to me. Interesting when we get so familiar with a particular version of a plant one forgets it is unlikely to be the only kind there is.
ReplyDeleteLucy, I looked into the hawthorn "situation" (taxonomy) -- hundreds of species in North America alone, and that's according to a non-splitter! Yet I only know two in the wild, hmmmm
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