Leaves: alternate, simple, 1 1/2-2 1/2" (4-6 cm) long, 1-1 1/4" (2.5-4.5 cm) wide, broadly ovate to triangular, or three lobed, short-pointed at the tip, nearly straight to slightly notched at the base; coarsely saw-toothed; often with 5 shallow lobes; slightly hairy when young, tinged with red, becoming shiny dark green above, paler beneath; turning scarlet and orange in autumn.
Flower: more than 1/2" (12 mm) wide, with 5 white petals, 20 pale yellow stamens, 3-5 styles; many flowers in compact hairless clusters; in late spring.
Fruit: 1/4" (6 mm) in diameter; shiny red or scarlet, with ring scar from shed calyx; thin dry pulp; 3-5 nutlets exposed at ends; maturing in autumn and persisting until spring.
Twig: shiny brown, with slender spines.
Bark: light brown; smooth; thin, becoming scaly.
Form: Shrub or small tree with short trunk and regular, rounded crown of upright branches.
Habitat: moist soil of valleys
Range: Virginia south to northern Florida, west to Arkansas, and north to southern Missouri; naturalized locally northeast to Massachusetts; to 2000' (620 m).
Location: north end of Meissner Street,
latitude - 39o02.53N
longitude - 089o57.58W
Washington hawthorn is the showiest most desirable of the hawthorns. Used in the early 19th century as a hedge.
© Community Unit School District #8, Bunker Hill
504 E. Warren, Bunker Hill, IL 62014
References:
Little, Elbert L. Field Guide to Trees: Eastern Region. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf Inc., 1980.
Mohlenbrock, Robert H. Forest Trees of Illinois. Springfield, IL: 1992