Apple or hawthorn?

Wild apples often grow in hawthorn hedges.

The quickest check

The quickest check is the outline. Apple: a plain oval with small uneven teeth. Hawthorn: three to seven lobes, cut at least halfway in. No leaves on the tree? Check the along a shoot.

At a glance

Look at	Apple	Hawthorn
Outline	A plain oval with small uneven teeth	Three to seven lobes, cut at least halfway in
Along a shoot	Stout and grey, finely hairy	Thorns 1 to 2 cm, a small bud at the base of each
Fruit in the hand	4 cm and up, pips in five chambers	About 10 mm, red, one stony pip

Three ways to tell them apart

OutlineLeaves

Apple: outline — AppleA plain oval with small uneven teeth

Hawthorn: outline — HawthornThree to seven lobes, cut at least halfway in

Along a shootTwigs and buds

Apple: along a shoot — AppleStout and grey, finely hairy

Hawthorn: along a shoot — HawthornThorns 1 to 2 cm, a small bud at the base of each

Fruit in the handApples

Apple4 cm and up, pips in five chambers

HawthornAbout 10 mm, red, one stony pip

Think you can tell them apart now? Try the tree quiz: real photographs, and what gives each tree away.Take the quiz

The two trees

Apple

Malus domestica

Apple grows into a low, wide tree with oval, finely toothed leaves that are fuzzy underneath. In spring, clusters of deep pink buds open into white blossom.

How to identify apple →

Hawthorn

Crataegus monogyna

Hawthorn is a dense, thorny shrub or small tree with little, deeply lobed leaves. It is white with blossom from early May and red with haws in autumn.

How to identify hawthorn →

Their other lookalikes

Apple or pear?Quickest check: the flower colour, and when

Hawthorn or blackthorn?Quickest check: the flowers and leaves, and when

Hawthorn or common whitebeam?Quickest check: the outline

Hawthorn or crab apple?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf

Hawthorn or field maple?Quickest check: the bare shoot

Hawthorn or Midland hawthorn?Quickest check: the depth of the lobes

Hawthorn or rowan?Quickest check: the whole leaf

Hawthorn or pear?Quickest check: the outline of a leaf

In the app

See them side by side in Treely

Both trees, part by partLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed through the year
Every lookalike side by sideThe checks that settle it, for every pair people mix up
A short round each dayUntil you can tell them apart at a glance
The full GuideBoth trees written up in full, with where to find them

App Store Google Play

Free to download.

Every fact on this page is checked against the Collins Tree Guide, last in November 2026. Spotted something that looks wrong in front of a real tree? Tell us. How we check.

Photographs: Owen and Carol Fawcett. (CC BY 4.0), Andrew Skotnicki (CC BY 4.0), steve_mcwilliam (CC0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0), Shawn O'Donnell (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.