Crab or hawthorn?

[Rally1148]

Hey all, I was at a park recently, and in one of the more wild sections (this park is ~100 years old, and was actually recently made a state park) I found a tree that I thought was hawthorn, based on the leaves. I grabbed a fruit and took a bite, IT WAS SWEET! The leaves are telling me hawthorn but the fruit is saying some sort of wild(ish) crab.

 

[Rally1148]

Were there any sharp pointed thorns on the branches/limbs ?

No sir. Nor was there the large, single seed as you often find with a hawthorn. The leaves are what were really throwing me off, though.

 

[chummer]

I tried a hawthorne for the first time last weekend. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste. Nothing great but certainly edible. They were red just like the ones in your picture. I also have a ton of green ones. I did not try a green one, I will give one a try this weekend. We have been dry so the hawthornes have dropped most of their leaves but are still loaded with fruit. With the food options around me the deer have to be eating these.

 

[West Branch]

Saw one of my old aunts a few weekends ago and she talked about making jelly out of "thorn apples", when I asked if she meant hawthorns, she said she never heard of those. Looking online there are a few recipes for hawthorns, so they must be decent to eat.

Maybe the one in the picture was some sort of crab apple if it didn't have thorns.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

It sure looks like a hawthorn to me. How big are the red fruits ??

There are a bunch of crabapple trees around a shopping mall here that have small, red fruit that look just like those in your picture. I just can't recall what the leaves look like. I'll have to drive over & check 'em out. Now I'm curious !!

 

[Rally1148]

There are a number of thornless hawthorns (that would be planted in public settings), but the seeds wouldn't change. The surest way to determine whether a fruit is an apple or not is to cut it in half through the mid section. If it looks like this...its an apple
View attachment 7501

I picked some. I'll do that today!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I went and checked the leaves on those crabs at the local shopping mall and the leaves & fruit are the same exact ones you show in your pic. No thorns on the trees. I picked some of the fruit and they are crabapples. Cut them in half like Stu said and they are crabapples. 5 seeds in the same arrangement as in Stu's pic. Size is about 5/8" to 3/4".

 

[Rally1148]

I went and checked the leaves on those crabs at the local shopping mall and the leaves & fruit are the same exact ones you show in your pic. No thorns on the trees. I picked some of the fruit and they are crabapples. Cut them in half like Stu said and they are crabapples. 5 seeds in the same arrangement as in Stu's pic. Size is about 5/8" to 3/4".

Odd, the one that I cut into was a hawthorn!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The shopping mall trees are LOADED and they're dropping like crazy right now. Fruit laying all over the parking lot edges. Most are still on the tree though.