Dwarf Hawthorn? Ever heard of it?

[Mike Hennigan]

I managed to stop by New England Bonsai Gardens on my thanksgiving travels and picked up three trees. I was really impressed by their selection and the quality of the trees and prices were pretty reasonable. Besides an azalea and a Korean hornbeam, I pick up this little “Dwarf Hawthorn”. I was very intrigued, I had never heard of a dwarf hawthorn before and hawthorns are one of my favorite deciduous. I couldn’t pass this little guy up. Now, I didn’t buy it because th tree was impressive, but I plan to put it into a larger grow box and beef him up a bit and then propagate with cuttings or air layers down the line.

The thing is I have no idea what this tree actually is. The tag said “dwarf hawthorn” and the species name that was written was Crataegus oxyacantha. If you google that species name you will find that it was once used to describe multiple species of Northern European hawthorn, and now is a rejected species name no longer used. None of those species that fall under that umbrella have leaves like this, which are much more of a compound leaf. Now, I know that when dwarf varieties are born the leaves can change a lot from their parent species. I was able to find one picture of this variety as bonsai but no real info attached to it.

If anybody has any insight into what species this variety actually is or any other info on it, I would greatly appreciate it. The main thing I’m worried about is if it actually is cold hardy to my zone in upstate NY, and safe to overwinter outside, though they assured me it would be fine.

 

[Handsome John]

I've never seen leaves like that on a hawthorn before but considering how they can easily cross with themselves to get weird characteristics in the wild, I wouldn't be too surprised to see a cultivated one like that. I would assume its cold hardy too but maybe give it a bit more protection this winter to get a feel for it, its too funky to loose it to a winter. Great strange find! I wonder how vigorous it would be when its got more room to grow?

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I've never seen leaves like that on a hawthorn before but considering how they can easily cross with themselves to get weird characteristics in the wild, I wouldn't be too surprised to see a cultivated one like that. I would assume its cold hardy too but maybe give it a bit more protection this winter to get a feel for it, its too funky to loose it to a winter. Great strange find! I wonder how vigorous it would be when its got more room to grow?

Yea who knows! They had another one right next to it with a trunk three or four times as thick, but since the azalea and hornbeam already ate most of my tree budget I went with the smaller more affordable option. Really excited to see what I can do with this tree.

 

[Melospiza]

Could it be Crataegus monogyna 'compacta', which seems to be a dwarf cultivar of the European hawthorn. Online images of the leaves show them to be heavily divided (lobed) but not as severely as the ones in your picture.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Could it be Crataegus monogyna 'compacta', which seems to be a dwarf cultivar of the European hawthorn. Online images of the leaves show them to be heavily divided (lobed) but not as severely as the ones in your picture.

The leaves are much closer but not quite... though my initial thoughts are it is probably a varitey of monogyna or laevigata. Since the species name oxyacantha was most recently used to describe these two species before they were identified as two separate species.

 

[Paulpash]

I managed to stop by New England Bonsai Gardens on my thanksgiving travels and picked up three trees. I was really impressed by their selection and the quality of the trees and prices were pretty reasonable. Besides an azalea and a Korean hornbeam, I pick up this little “Dwarf Hawthorn”. I was very intrigued, I had never heard of a dwarf hawthorn before and hawthorns are one of my favorite deciduous. I couldn’t pass this little guy up. Now, I didn’t buy it because th tree was impressive, but I plan to put it into a larger grow box and beef him up a bit and then propagate with cuttings or air layers down the line.

The thing is I have no idea what this tree actually is. The tag said “dwarf hawthorn” and the species name that was written was Crataegus oxyacantha. If you google that species name you will find that it was once used to describe multiple species of Northern European hawthorn, and now is a rejected species name no longer used. None of those species that fall under that umbrella have leaves like this, which are much more of a compound leaf. Now, I know that when dwarf varieties are born the leaves can change a lot from their parent species. I was able to find one picture of this variety as bonsai but no real info attached to it.

If anybody has any insight into what species this variety actually is or any other info on it, I would greatly appreciate it. The main thing I’m worried about is if it actually is cold hardy to my zone in upstate NY, and safe to overwinter outside, though they assured me it would be fine.

View attachment 218668
View attachment 218669

View attachment 218668View attachment 218669

Have you had good success propagating Crataegus from cuttings / layers? I've only managed it once on a monogyna but my main failure has been on the Paul's Scarlet variety (struck out on 3 layers). I don't know if it's the variety that's resistant as the large majority of layers that I've taken work.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Have you had good success propagating Crataegus from cuttings / layers? I've only managed it once on a monogyna but my main failure has been on the Paul's Scarlet variety (struck out on 3 layers). I don't know if it's the variety that's resistant as the large majority of layers that I've taken work.

I’ve collected a bunch of Monogyna but haven’t really tried air layering, there’s enough fantastic monogyna growing wild around here that I haven’t really felt the need to airlayer. Hawthorns can be kind of slow growers though I suppose, maybe cuttings are more reliable. I’ve also started some monogyna from seed I collected. To get some smaller trees for a forest I’m planning.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Crataegus oxyacantha
Crataegus monogyna
Crataegus laevis
Crataegus rhipidophylla
All four are European species, and were described a long time ago, before more modern concepts and rules around species were developed. Because the type specimen for C oxyacantha no longer exists, it is not clear exactly which species this name refers to. The original drawings and descriptions are not clear on the traits that today are considered important for separating species of Crataegus. At least one taxonomist thinks that C. oxyacantha refers to C. rhipidophylla, others think C. oxyacantha refers to C. monogyna. It is not clear. Simce C oxyacantha is the oldest of the Crataegus described, the name oxyacantha should be used instead of one of the more recent names, but it is not clear if all C. monogyna should be called oxyacantha or if all C. rhipidophylla should be called oxyacantha. So the debate slowly goes on. Every few years another paper will be published and then debated.

Leaf shape is usually constant for any one cultivar of a species but is fairly variable in group of plants of the same species. Each seedling will have its own, minor differences in leaf shape. So determining species from leaf shape is guess work at best. Leaf shape is not considered a conservative trait.

I looked up cultivar names, and the ICN has no registered 'Dwarf' or 'Dwarf Hawthorn' name registered. There is a high probability that your tree is a cutting propagated from Crataegus monogyna 'compacta' or it could be a unique cultivar of Crataegus oxyacantha that has not been registered yet. I could not find a write up on Crataegus monogyna 'compacta', so there is a possibility that one has not been registered either.

Isn't taxonomy wonderful? The more you dig, the less certain you will be. Mike, if I were you, just keep it labeled as it is, C. oxyacantha 'Dwarf Hawthorn', and don't worry about it. It should be hardy through USDA zone 5. It is a European Hawthorn, much like C. x media 'Paul's Scarlet' and the horticulture should be similar.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Many of the European hawthorns have naturalized in North America. So you might be seeing monogyna in the landscape. But if you are hiking in the forests of the Ithaca area, are several Crataegus species native to New York, and you might not be looking at the invasive European Crataegus, you might be looking at the NY native Crataegus. It is very difficult to accurately determine species of Crataegus, they all look a lot a like.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

Many of the European hawthorns have naturalized in North America. So you might be seeing monogyna in the landscape. But if you are hiking in the forests of the Ithaca area, are several Crataegus species native to New York, and you might not be looking at the invasive European Crataegus, you might be looking at the NY native Crataegus. It is very difficult to accurately determine species of Crataegus, they all look a lot a like.

Yea for sure, Thanks a ton for your input. I have come across a number of hawthorn species here, but the only ones I’ve collected have been monogyna, since they dominate the area that I usually collect them from. Though I would love to collect some other native species.

 

[discusmike]

I’ve never seen leaves like that either on hawthorn

 

[discusmike]

does it have thorns like a hawthorn?? Maybe NEB could enlighten you a bit about the tree

 

[Mike Hennigan]

does it have thorns like a hawthorn?? Maybe NEB could enlighten you a bit about the tree

Yea it does have hawthorn style thorns. Here’s one circled in red:


And although the leaves appear to be almost compound, they are not, just very deeply lobed. This leaf may appear more like hawthorn to you than the others pictured, as the two lobes at the end are still fused:


The other thing that tells me that this is a hawthorn is the incredibly sharp, angular, odd growth habit of the trunk and branches that you can see throughout the crown. If you’ve looked at enough hawthorns you know this type of growth habit just screams hawthorn. Although we tend to train this type of movement out of the tree when making bonsai:




Everything about this tree is telling me it’s a hawthorn, I wouldn’t have bought it if I thought it was mislabeled. It just seemed that NEbonsai didn’t have much info besides what was on the label, wanted to see if any nutters have come upon this variety as well. As long as it survives the winter, I’ll be happy, which it should...

 

[shinmai]

Somewhere in the background I’m hearing a kid sitting on a porch playing a homemade banjo.

 

[shinmai]

I’m so glad that at least one person got that reference. “squeal like a pig.....”

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I’m so glad that at least one person got that reference. “squeal like a pig.....”

Not sure if I’m getting the connection between deliverance and this thread, but whatever floats your boat ?

 

[shinmai]

Genetic ambiguity.

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I guess this tree must be cold hardy, because it doesn’t seem to know that it is winter! After all the cold weather so far this year the tree still has vibrant green leaves that seem to be totally unaffected by the freezing temps we’ve had.

A lot of other deciduous I have seen with green leaves late in the season, usually the leaves just wilt up and go from green to brown after the first hard freeze. These leaves seem to contain antifreeze or something. Interesting...

 

[Mike Hennigan]

I guess this tree must be cold hardy, because it doesn’t seem to know that it is winter! After all the cold weather so far this year the tree still has vibrant green leaves that seem to be totally unaffected by the freezing temps we’ve had.

A lot of other deciduous I have seen with green leaves late in the season, usually the leaves just wilt up and go from green to brown after the first hard freeze. These leaves seem to contain antifreeze or something. Interesting...

View attachment 221465View attachment 221465

All mulched in for the winter.

 

[William N. Valavanis]

Looks like a tropical species to me...