looduskalender.ee

 

Hawthorn

 

The fruits of hawthorns are ripening, prettily red, with one seed, and a mealy taste. People have called them “mealy berry trees“.

 

It is one of the plant families with the largest number of species in the world – more than a thousand species are believed to exist and more are constantly created. How do new species come about? Hawthorns interbreed easily and produce plants with characteristics difficult to determine or intermediate between the two original species. In Estonia the hawthorns grow mostly as tall shrubs or – more rarely – as low trees. There are more than 60 species here, mostly growing in parks and gardens.