Crataegus phaenopyrum(L.f.) Medik.

Washington hawthorn

WFO wfo-0001010531 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. a Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-17 / obs. 164201801
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Summit Metro Parks
fig. b Summit Metro Parks, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 31352598
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Adam Kranz
fig. c Adam Kranz, CC0 1.0 / obs. 40169042
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. d Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164202022
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. e Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 160155404
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Rochelle Davis
fig. f Rochelle Davis, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 132217742
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by Heidi Hellstern
fig. g Heidi Hellstern, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 71948359
Crataegus phaenopyrum, photographed by bunnymom20
fig. h bunnymom20, CC0 1.0 / obs. 109703639

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 22 botanical countries

Regions where Crataegus phaenopyrum is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMichiganMississippiMontanaNorth CarolinaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVirginiaWashingtonWest Virginia Delaware
Native distribution of Crataegus phaenopyrum, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Delaware DEL
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
Montana MNT
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Virginia VRG
Washington WAS
West Virginia WVA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 280 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -9.5 °C -5.7 °C 2.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.9 °C 27.7 °C 31.5 °C
Annual rainfall 874 mm 1,071 mm 1,412 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 71 mm 204 mm 303 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 280 research-grade observations of Crataegus phaenopyrum that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 28 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cotoneaster cordatus (Mill.) Focke
  • Crataegus acerifolia J.Gordon, T.Dermer & R.Edmonds
  • Crataegus acerifolia J.Gordon, Dermer & R.Edmonds
  • Crataegus borealis Ashe
  • Crataegus corallina Pers.
  • Crataegus cordata [Soland.]
  • Crataegus cordata (Mill.) Aiton
  • Crataegus cordato Mill.
  • Crataegus cordifolia (Mill.) Farw.
  • Crataegus cordifolia Mill.
  • Crataegus cordifolia var. borealis (Ashe) Farw.
  • Crataegus phaenopyrum f. fastigiata A.D.Slavin
  • Crataegus populifolia Walter
  • Crataegus youngii Sarg.
  • Gymnomeles cordata Oerst. ex Zabel
  • Mespilus acerifolia Burgsd.
  • Mespilus corallina Desf.
  • Mespilus cordata Mill.
  • Mespilus cordata (Mill.) Pott
  • Mespilus cordato Mill.
  • Mespilus cordifolia Mill.
  • Mespilus phaenopyrum L.f.
  • Mespilus populifolia (Walter) Poir.
  • Phaenopyrum acerifolium (Burgsd.) M.Roem.

and 4 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.