Plant Species: Crataegus douglasii, black hawthorn
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida -- dicotyledons
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae -- rose
Genus: Crataegus
Species: douglasii
Variety:
Common Name: black hawthorn, douglas hawthorn
Species Code: CRDO2
Origin: Native to moist places from grasslands to open forest of North America from Alaska to Ontario and across the northern tier of the US, extending south into California and Nevada. On the Palouse it commonly forms dense thickets on north facing hillsides and along streams.
Rare: no
Form: shrub; erect, 1-10 m tall; stems round, reddish-brown at nodes, aging to dirty grey with zigzagging branches armed with solitary, stout thorns 1-2 cm at nodes; pith white, continuous; buds alternate, short, plump, ovate, shiny red with several bud scales.
Duration: perennial
Longevity: long lived
Habitat Type: prairie, riparian, shrub thickets
Wetland Indicator Status: FAC
Leaves: Alternate, deciduous, obovate, 3-6 cm long, irregular teeth, can be shallowly 5-9 lobed, dark green but turning red when growing in full sun.
Mature height: to 25 feet
Flowers: petals white, nearly orbicular, 5-7 mm long, borne in axillary clusters.
Flower color: white
Bloom: May, June
Bloom starts on: late May
Bloom ends on: early June
Fruit: pome, small, black, containing 4-5 seeds.
Vegetation type:
Characteristics:
C. brevispina in Piper & Beattie 1914.
Reproduces sexually by seed.
14,900-23,700 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
20,033 seeds/lb (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
2n=about 51 (Hitchcock et al 1969).
2n=34 (Baldwin et al 2004).
Flowers are perfect.
Multiple ploidy levels and apomixis may be present.
Fruit is a pome.
Fruit is edible and was widely used by native peoples.
Birds and bears eat the fruits. Birds and small mammals find cover and food under the dense canopy. Magpies prefer C. douglasii for nesting.
Crataegus is a host for the larva of Lorquin’s admiral butterfly (Limentis lorquini) (Pocewicz 2005).
Comments:
Sun requirement: full to partial sun
Soil moisture: mesic
Precipitation: 16-260 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).
Fire: Top-killed by fire. Resprouts from roots or root crown. Slow to recover from fire (Habeck 1991).
Hazards:
Sowing time: fall
Transplant time: spring
Stratification: extended cold moist
Seed yield: high for mature plants
Seed harvest: medium difficulty
Seed first harvest:
Seed cleaning: difficult
Planting duration: long
Seed insect problem:
Seed shatter: low, but increases with ripening
Seed size: large
Seed harvest date: August
Seed comments: Fruits must be harvested before they fall or are eaten by wildlife.
Key words: shrub upland wildlife
Alternate Genus:
Alternate Species:
Alternate Variety:
Notes: At one time, 2 intraspecific taxa were recognized, var. suksdorfii and var. douglasii. More recently it was proposed to raise var. suksdorfii to specific status (Brunsfeld & Johnson 1990), thus making var. douglasii superfluous.
References:
Baldwin, B.G., S. Boyd, B.J. Ertter, D.J. Keil, R.W. Patterson, T.J. Rosatti, and D.H. Wilken (eds). 2004. Jepson Online Interchange for California Floristics. University and Jepson Herbaria, University of California, Berkeley, CA. Accessed 8/5/09 online at http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/interchange.html
Brunsfeld, S.J., and F.D. Johnson. 1990. Cytological, Morphological, Ecological, and Phenological Support for Specific Status of Crataegus suksdorfii (Rosaceae). Madrono 37: 274-282.
Evans, Roger C., and Timothy A. Dickinson. 1996. North American Black-Fruited Hawthorns. II. Floral Development of 10- and 20-Stamen Morphotypes in Crataegus Section Douglasii (Rosaceae: Maloideae). American Journal of Botany 83:961-978.
Francis, J.K. 2004.
Crataegus douglasii Lindl. p. 254-256.
In: Francis, John K (ed). 2004.
Wildland Shrubs of the United States and Its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions: Volume 1.
Gen. Tech. Report IITF-GTR-26.
USDA, Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and
USDA, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO. 839 p.
Habeck, R. J. 1991. Crataegus douglasii. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, August 4].
Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.
Hitchcock, C. Leo, Arthur Cronquist, Marion Ownbey, and J.W. Thompson. 1969. Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. University of Washington Press. Seattle, WA. 5 vol.
Lasseigne, F. Todd, and Frank A. Blazich. Crataegus L. hawthorn, haw, thorn, thorn-apple. In: Bonner, Franklin T., and Rebecca G. Nisley (eds.). Woody Plant Seed Manual. USDA Forest Service. Available online at http://www.nsl.fs.fed.us/wpsm/
Piper, C.V., and R.K. Beattie. 1914. The Flora of Southeastern Washington and Adjacent Idaho. Lancaster, PA: Press of the New Era Printing Company. 296 pp.
Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.
USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 5 August 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.