Arnold hawthorn might be the fruit you’re looking for already, but it’s more like a giant late blueberry, despite being red.
I can’t recommend Arnold hawthorn enough.
I’d like to try Douglas and Fire-Berry hawthorns as well.
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they grow wild in wet spots here. what do they taste like? the wild ones have wicked 3in. thorns on them. probably why no one dares pick them. ive bumped into one once while picking fiddleheads. didnt do that again.
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@steveb4 If you’re talking to me, Arnold hawthorn tastes like something between a blueberry, a pear, and a little bit of summer apple flavor. The texture is like a slightly dry large blueberry, but with significantly large hard seeds in the center, which when big enough ~1 inch you could even eat around without losing almost any haw.
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Awesome! This is one I need to pick up and add to my apple and pear trees that I’ve already loaded up with different medlar and hawthorn. I’ve seen several reports that the fruit tastes better than that of most hawthorns. I wonder whether it’s apomictic or if it produces offspring with much variation.
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Well according to https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/plantmaterials/ndpmcrb11303.pdf it’s propagated by seed, which might mean it’s apomictic
It seems unrelated to stern’s medlar, but tasty hawthorns are still appreciated
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My parents land is loaded with Hillside Hawthorn, and none of the pears or Asian pears that I tried grafting survived on it, I have to check the winter banana apple still, that I don’t know.
I’d like to try Clara Frijs on it, and winter banana again if the other didn’t take (a summer graft with zero after care), but the big ones I want to try are Medlar, Arnold hawthorn, and Stern’s Medlar (a hawthorn hybrid).
@MaleaeLover thanks for the info doc link. That makes sense that it’s grown from seed, because I see lots of variation among the the trees have 1 inch+ blueberry like fruit, and some are all under 3/4” and more like typical Haws, but not mushy at least.
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@MaleaeLover That would be my guess as well. If so, it must produce enough sexual seed that they were able to release ‘Homestead’ as a named cultivar. Very cool article.
@trav I think hawthorn graft compatibility may be cultivar-specific, even within the same species. I had zero takes with ‘Red Sun’ on both apple and pear, but so far I’ve had 100% success with other Crataegus pinnatifida selections. It could have been the scions, though—they looked fine, but it’s hard to know for sure.
The only thing I’ve grafted onto Crataegus rootstock so far is seedling plum scions. It’s too early to tell if they’ve truly taken, but they’re pushing growth. Same story with seedling plums on Sorbus. I’m not really expecting compatibility, but it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Medlar and various hawthorn species grafts are all looking good so far on apple and pear, though I have no idea whether any delayed incompatibility will show up down the road.
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interesting. how are the thorns on Arnold?
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Do you have much cedar apple rust in your area? Because it’s pretty bad in my area, so I’m wondering if that would be an issue.
I’d want to try growing it anyway to have as a pollen source assuming it doesn’t have issues with my climate. But a rust resistant hawthorn is going to be much higher on my priority list than a susceptible one
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They can be up to two inches long but they’re a little sparse and they’re not tractor tire killers or even so sharp, like hillside Hawthorn; and they don’t make spike clusters like honey locust or hillside Hawthorn either.
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I guess there must be rust because the leaves of hillside Hawthorn are usually Rusty and the Haws are almost always completely ruined, I don’t think I’ve even gotten to try one because they rot on the trees almost every year.
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Nice, so I assume that means arnold hawthorn is rust resistant since I don’t see any issues in your photos. Although admittedly there’s different species of Gymnosporangium in different areas so it might vary. I’ll have to get it and see how it does in my climate
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Actually I’m in a completely different area, Moscow, Russia, right now, that’s why there’s so much I want to try when I get back to my parents place.
And I forgot to order the trees that I wanted to have my brother plant, maybe it’s too late now.
In any case I’ll have a chance to plant soon.
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No… not the same, this tree is much much better. Homestead has 3/4 inch fruits, that would be a small fruit on this tree. It has 1”+ fruits, not all of them but many and probably a significant minority over 1 1/4” I tried to transplant some suckers, but they were not happy being manhandled after leaf-out.
I was late collecting scions, but I still will, I’m sure I can get a couple, but where to graft them is a question, I guess on another random Arnold that I’m not actually sure is any worse! 
But that one is certainly exceptional!
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I’ve been looking into Crataegus arnoldiana, and it appears that some authorities treat it as a large-fruited form of Crataegus submollis. I’m not sure whether this interpretation applies to all large-fruited forms of C. submollis or only to descendants of the trees originally found growing naturally at the Arnold Arboretum.
@JohannsGarden recently posted that he tentatively identified the hawthorn cultivar ‘Angelo Rosso’ as Crataegus submollis. ‘Angelo Rosso’ may be a good option for anyone looking to acquire a tree similar to the one shown in @trav’s photos.
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That looks great! Hopefully it has some acerola flavor and crispness.
But it’s only cold hardy to zone 5 or maybe 4 whereas Arnold hawthorn is hardy to Zone 3, possibly even lower, and Arnold fruit is generally good, but according to the description you need to get a cultivar of crataegus submollis in order to have good raw eating fruit.
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Incidentally, Crataegus submollis may prove ideal for use in hybridizing. Although many Crataegus species with increased ploidy produce some or mostly apomictic seeds, C. submollis has been shown to produce seeds mostly via sexual reproduction despite being tetraploid.
https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/11/24/3497#B62-plants-11-03497
The variation in reproduction systems of Crataegus in North America includes also obligate and facultative apomicts. Some species are capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction. While C. crus-galli L. and C. macracantha Lodd. ex Loudon are almost obligate apomicts, tetraploid species C. submollis Sarg. is predominantly sexual, i.e., the seeds show much higher rates of meiotic reduction than in other polyploid Crataegus
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One thing that might be interesting to eventually try is stuff like anther culture or microspore embryogenesis to try to produce dihaploid lines from tetraploids. I wonder whether diploids derived from apomictic tetraploids would remain apomictic, start reproducing sexually, or would end up sterile or have low fertility. I imagine it would vary a lot depending on the parent and whether there’d be issues with chromosomes’ pairing during meiosis.
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