Crataegus monogyna
Hawthorn - Queen of the wild hedge
FOLK NAMES
Hawthorn, English Hawthorn, Holy Thorn, Lady’s Meat, Whitethorn, Haw, Hawthorn, Mayblossom, Oneseed, Uath or Huath (ancient Gaelic and Irish), Hedgethorn
DESCRIPTION
The Hawthorn tree is an important medicine and an important tree in the folklore of western European folks. Crategus monogyna has little white five petaled flowers, similar to those who share the Rosacea family like apple, cherry, and plumb. Their fruits are small red haws with a single stone-like seed inside. Other hawthorn varieties may have two seeds or many seeds. A keeper of time, this tree has become a symbol of both fertility and dying.
HERBAL ACTIONS
Berries: cardiac, diuretic, astringent, tonic, stimulate appetite
Leaf & Flower: cardiac, diuretic, astringent
MEDICINAL USES
Hawthorn is often reached for in times of heart trouble — chest pain, anxiety with mild heart palpitations, risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and grief. Hawthorn is often referred to as a vasodilator, meaning she opens the blood vessels that more blood can flow through the heart and supports general heart health.
According to Michael Tierra, in his book Planetary Herbology, the Traditional Chinese Medicine system has known the hawthorn berry to be supportive for digestion but learned from the western system of Hawthorn’s cardiac support. The TCM system now blends hawthorn in many blood-moving formulas.
The leaf and flower make a lovely tea. I tend to lean on leaf and flower for more of my medicinal needs and the berry for food-like medicine such a jams and syrups. Both can be tinctured or made into tea.
Hawthorn is also indirectly helpful for stress and sleep, and can thus be added to blends for such matters. One of my favorite formulas from Tierra’s Planetary Herbology is a blend for nervous tension. Hawthorn acts as a nourisher, blood mover, and harmonizer in this particular formula. (See Recipes)
HARVEST
Leaf and flower: Harvest when open and fragrant in May. Cut the tips of the flowing branches and dry.
Berry: September/October; When a crushed haw is white and not green on the inside, the berries are ready. Pick and use fresh or dry for decoctions.
ETHNOBOTANY AND FOLKLORE
Though we tend to celebrate Beltane on May 1, as is convenient for us to know when it is exactly in order to make proper preparations, folk back in the day knew that Beltane was when the Hawthorn flowers opened, and thus celebrations would commence.
Partially due to the scent of the Hawthorn flowers, one that reminds many of sex but also rot and decay, the tree has strong associations with both fertility and death. Timely, then, that it flowers at the celebration of fertility and fruits and the celebration of the dead.
It was said that Joseph of Arimathea, the man who took Jesus down from the cross, traveled to the British Isles sometime after the execution of Jesus. He struck his staff into the ground atop Wearyall Hill in Glastonbury and from it, the Hawthorn grew. Thus, the Hawthorn was known as the Holy Thorn Tree.
The Hawthorn tree is known to be a doorway to the Otherworld and a home to spirits and faefolk on the British Isles. For this reason, it is ill-advised to ever cut down a lone Hawthorn. Likewise, it is advised not to fall asleep under a lone hawthorn tree, lest you be swept away by the fae folk.
The wood is hard and has been known to make boxes, combs, and other small durables. As a fuel, it also burns very hot.
RECIPIES
Peat Bog Hawthorn Elixir
Fresh hawthorn berries
Connemara Peat Whiskey
Honey
This recepie was inspired by Yaya Erin Rivera Merriman’s Heavenly Hawthorn Heaps. Fill a jar 1/2 way with fresh hawthorn berries. Leave space for 1 fingerwidth worth of honey and cover with Connemara Peat Whiskey. Add honey. Secure your jar and shake well. Shake daily for at least 5 days to incorporate the honey. Let your elixir macerate for 6 weeks. Strain and use as you would a hawthorn tincture or an infused liquor. Hawthorn, English Hawthorn, Holy Thorn, Lady’s Meat, Whitethorn, Haw, Hawthorn, Mayblossom, Oneseed, Uath or Huath (ancient Gaelic and Irish), Hedgethorn
The Hawthorn tree is an important medicine and an important tree in the folklore of western European folks. Crategus monogyna has little white five petaled flowers, similar to those who share the Rosacea family like apple, cherry, and plumb. Their fruits are small red haws with a single stone-like seed inside. Other hawthorn varieties may have two seeds or many seeds. A keeper of time, this tree has become a symbol of both fertility and dying.
GOOD GRIEF TINCTURE
BE STILL MY HEART TEA