Name: Hawthorn fruit, also called haw or thornapple (genus Crataegus, a large genus including the common hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, among many other species). Different wild and cultivated hawthorn species produce fruit ranging from red to orange, blue, or black, all generally referred to simply as haws.
Description
Hawthorns are thorny shrubs or small trees in the rose family, native across the north temperate zone, closely related to apples and pears. Their white or pink spring flowers give way to small, apple-shaped pomes that vary in color and flavor by species but are consistently edible, if often mealy or mild in the wild forms.
Beyond their fruit, hawthorns have long been planted as hedging — their dense thorny branches make an effective barrier — and the fruit and flowers have a long history of use in herbal medicine, particularly in European and Chinese traditions. In China, hawthorn fruit (shanzha) is especially popular, dried, candied, or made into the skewered candy-coated snack tanghulu, and into haw flakes.
Main nutrition value
No USDA-analyzed nutrition data exists for hawthorn fruit specifically. As a close relative in the same Rosaceae tribe, the figures below are for crab apple, a similarly small applelike pome fruit, shown here as the nearest available approximation, per 100g raw:
| Name | Average Amount | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Proximates | ||
| Water | 78.9 | g |
| Energy | 76 | kcal |
| Protein | 0.4 | g |
| Total lipid (fat) | 0.3 | g |
| Ash | 0.42 | g |
| Carbohydrate, by difference | 20 | g |
| Minerals | ||
| Calcium, Ca | 18 | mg |
| Iron, Fe | 0.36 | mg |
| Magnesium, Mg | 7 | mg |
| Phosphorus, P | 15 | mg |
| Potassium, K | 194 | mg |
| Sodium, Na | 1 | mg |
| Copper, Cu | 0.067 | mg |
| Manganese, Mn | 0.115 | mg |
| Vitamins | ||
| Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid | 8 | mg |
| Thiamin | 0.03 | mg |
| Riboflavin | 0.02 | mg |
| Niacin | 0.1 | mg |
| Vitamin A, RAE | 2 | µg |
Like other small wild pome fruits, hawthorn berries are likely a source of vitamin C and potassium, though exact values for the fruit itself have not been directly analyzed by USDA.
How best to be consumed
Hawthorn fruit is rarely eaten raw in quantity, since most wild species are mealy or bland; it is far more common cooked down into jelly, syrup, or wine, or, especially in China, dried and candied into snacks like tanghulu and haw flakes. The seeds are typically discarded rather than eaten, much as with other small pome fruit.
Overconsumption could cause…
Hawthorn fruit is generally safe in food amounts, but hawthorn preparations (leaf, flower, and fruit extracts) are also used medicinally to support heart function, and concentrated hawthorn supplements can interact with heart medications such as digoxin or blood pressure drugs — a reason to be cautious with supplement-strength extracts rather than the fresh or dried fruit. As with other small pome fruits, the seeds should not be eaten in quantity.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central — no entry exists for hawthorn fruit in any FDC data type; substituted with Crabapples, raw (FDC ID 171721), the closest available nutritionally-analyzed relative (same Maleae tribe of Rosaceae, small applelike pome fruit), 100g portion: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/food-details/171721/nutrients Encyclopaedia Britannica — hawthorn: https://www.britannica.com/plant/hawthorn
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