Dotted Hawthorn

These trees grow all over the place in and around Gardeau, Pennsylvania where my parents have a small camper trailer. I remember seeing ...Read Morethese trees & their small apple-like fruits all the time when my brother & I were up at the camp with our parents. For the longest time, I had no idea what they were, but because they looked a lot like apple trees with wicked thorns (and the fruits looked & tasted like small apples), we called them "Thorn-apples".

The fruits were usually about 1-1.5" in diameter, and many of them were the same color as golden delicious apples (which I thought they were some rogue variety of when I was little), but they can range from yellow to red, depending on individual trees. The foliage & bark of the trees are also attractive, with the only potential down-side being the wicked sharp thorns all over the branches & trunk. Seriously: this tree has thorns that have thorns on them, but it would make a great hedge plant. There is a thornless variety called "Ohio Pioneer" for those who are turned off by spiny plants.

Still, considering that these are good, sturdy & long-lived trees that don't get too big (the tallest I've ever seen anywhere were about 25ft tall), IMO, they make a WAY better ornamental than the introduced & invasive Callery ("Bradford") pears & Asian crabapples.