Common hawthorn is a plant belonging to the angiosperm department, the dicotyledonous class, the Rosaceae family. It has other names: boyarka, prickly hawthorn, smoothed hawthorn, lady-tree, glod, blood-red hawthorn, virginity tree, Crataegus laevigata (in Latin). In nature, it grows in the steppes, forests, parks of Europe and North America. It owes its wide distribution to birds, which, eating fruits, carry bones.
Common hawthorn has a smooth bark. Spines about 5 cm long, located on the branches. Young shoots are painted in brown-red colors. The leaves are dark green above, lighter below. On the lower branches they are solid, the rest are cut into three parts, pointed, serrated. Hawthorn flowers are white or pink, five-petalled, collected in inflorescences, 1.5 cm in diameter. The fruits are red or red-brown, about 1 cm in diameter, spherical or berry-shaped, with 2-3 seeds inside. Blossoms in June, fruits ripen by September.
This plant can be grown as a shrub or as a tree. It all depends on your desire and ability to cut it periodically. If allowed to grow without pruning, the tree can reach 12 m inheight.
Common hawthorn easily tolerates pruning, as it has an increased shoot-forming ability. Sick and dry branches can be removed at any time. If the plant is used as a hedge, then in the spring all shoots must be shortened by a third. From group plantings, you can form squares, balls, pyramids.
Common hawthorn grows on almost any soil. It is frost-resistant, drought-resistant, shade-tolerant. Honey plant, readily visited by bees.
Fruits are consumed both fresh and processed. Compotes, jams, jelly, tea and coffee surrogates are prepared from them. Dried fruits are used to make flour, which is used to make fortified bread. The bark of this plant is used to dye fabrics red, yellow and brown.
Flowers are harvested in early June in dry weather, fruits - in September, bark and leaves - during the growing season. All collected raw materials with a pleasant smell are dried well and stored in paper bags.
Literally everything is useful in hawthorn: fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, bark. In each part of the plant, valuable substances were found that are used both in official medicine and in folk medicine. For example, hawthorn flowers are used for edema, rheumatism, hyperthyroidism, migraines, hypertension, to improve sleep, and overall strengthening of the body. From ripe fruits, a drug is made that stimulates the heart. The bark taken from young branches is used fordiarrhea and as an anti-febrile agent.
Wonderful hawthorn plant! The properties and the effect of preparations from it on a person are very different. Hawthorn also helps with headaches, is used to treat herpes. Despite the non-toxicity and the possibility of long-term use of drugs, tinctures, decoctions, the dosage should not be exceeded. Excessive consumption of fresh fruits can cause nausea, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmia.
Treatment with hawthorn is undesirable for hypotension, lactation and individual intolerance.
