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The Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna)
It is a shrub or broadly-spreading small tree
with thorny branches which can reach heights of
between 2 and 12 metres.
The flowers are rosy white in corymbs of 5-25.
The fruits are oval, red and contain a single seed.
The leaves are piccolate, rhomboid and deeply lobed,
sometimes almost to the midrib, and the tips of the
lobes are serrated.
The flowers are usually produced between May and
June, and in autumn they give way to small round red
drupes containing a single seed which stay on the
plant until the end of the winter.
This plant is extremely suited to being grown just
like bonsai as it is easy to cultivate and resistant
to extreme conditions.
As a herbal medicine the hawthorn is used as a heart
tonic and in the treatment of diarrhea and
hypertension.
The bark is particularly tough and for this reason
the generic denomination of Crataegus comes from a
word whose etymology reveals a Greek root: krātos,
which means strength and sturdiness.
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