Plant · P-382

Parsley Hawthorn

Crataegus marshallii

Parsley Hawthorn is the most easily identified hawthorn in the southeastern woods, thanks to leaves that are deeply cut like garden parsley and colour well in autumn. White flowers cover it from March into May, feeding native bees and butterflies, and the small red fruit that follows hangs on through winter instead of being stripped, feeding birds and mammals over a long season. It is tart, worked into jelly and preserves rather than eaten fresh. It tolerates far less light than most fruiting trees, holding under an existing canopy where almost nothing else will fruit.