Dark green and slightly glossy, to 6 cm, with three or five blunt lobes cut less than halfway in towards the centre.
Native, in southern and central England · Up to 10 m
Midland hawthorn
Crataegus laevigata · Rosaceae
Midland hawthorn is a dense, thorny shrub or low tree with small, shallowly lobed leaves. Its haws hold two or three stones.
Often mistaken for hawthorn. How to tell them apart →Know it byLeavesDark green and slightly glossy, to 6 cm, with three or five lobes.
BlossomWhite, over 15 mm across, in loose clusters of up to nine.
HawsDeep red, about 1 cm, with two or three stones.
LeavesDark green and slightly glossy, to 6 cm, with three or five lobes.BlossomWhite, over 15 mm across, in loose clusters of up to nine.HawsDeep red, about 1 cm, with two or three stones.Then check · ThornsShoots with short spines rarely more than 1 cm long, each with a bud beside it at the same point.
How to identify a Midland hawthorn
White flowers over 15 mm across, in loose clusters of up to nine. Each has two or three threads at the centre, inside a ring of red-tipped threads.
Deep red haws about 1 cm, each holding two or three stones.
Learn the Midland hawthorn in TreelyEvery part through the year, and a short round each day until you know it.Get Treely
Every part, in photographs
jamie-aa, CC BY 4.0Don Loarie, CC BY 4.0When to look
JFMAMJJASOND
In leaf
Flowers
Haws
In leaf: April to November · Flowers: April to June · Haws: August to November
Where you’ll find it
Wild in ancient woods and old hedges on clay in southern and central England, and on some more open limestone slopes. A plant in a hedge is often left over from woodland that once stood there. The red and double-flowered forms in streets and gardens were planted.
What it’s mistaken for
- BlackthornBoth are thorny shrubs carrying white flowers. Flowers. Midland hawthorn: in May, the leaves almost fully grown. Blackthorn: from mid-March, on bare black wood.
In the app
There’s more of the Midland hawthorn in Treely
- Every part, through the yearLeaves, bark, buds, flowers and fruit, photographed in every season
- Its lookalikes, side by sideThe checks that settle it, part by part
- A short round each dayUntil you know the Midland hawthorn on sight, from any side
- Name it from a photoA leaf, the bark or a flower, and Treely tells you which tree
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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: steve_mcwilliam (CC0), jamie-aa (CC BY 4.0), Don Loarie (CC BY 4.0), Leon Cross (CC BY 4.0). With thanks to everyone who shares their photographs on iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons.