Can anyone help me distinguish between the two. I have found some on my property in west central MN and I’m having a hard time figuring out if they are apples or hawthorn. Also would other apples be graft compatible if it is indeed prairie crabapple?
By Prairie crabapple do you mean malus ionenis?
I’ve got loads of hawthorns here, but no malus ionenis.
As far as telling them apart goes, hawthorns tend to have more and larger “thorns”. Hawthorns also have what I call a “zig zaggy” growth pattern.
If you take some pics after they’ve leafed out, I’d imagine the collective minds here could tell you what you may have.
A decent reference page Trees of Wisconsin: Malus ioensis, prairie crabapple
Yes I was referring to malus ionenis. Here was a site that I was looking at
I’ll try to get some decent pics. Only other thing I found was that some websites said hawthorn blossoms had a bit of a rotting or bad smell. Smsmith can you confirm this?
I have read/heard that as well. I have at least two types of hawthorns here and they bloom annually. I cannot say that I find the smell bad in any way
Oh, cool topic. I had figured a thorny flowering tree in one of my prime morel spots was a hawthorn, but that info about very fragrant flowers makes me think it must be Malus ioensis.