Large-Fruited Thorn
Categories:
Vii Wild Food On The Trail
The thorns, large-fruited and scarlet, are edible. As a child I knew the
fruit as _haws_ and was very fond of it. The large-fruited thorn is a
low tree with branches spreading out horizontally. You will often find
it in thickets. The bark is rough and the thorns on the branches are
long, sharp, and of a light-brown color. In flavor the fruit is sweet
and apple-like; the flesh is dry and mealy; it grows on hairy stems and
the seeds are hard, rounded, and grooved. The summit is tipped with the
calyx and it ripens in September. The leaves are thick, narrowed at the
base, and rounded at the ends, with veins underneath that are prominent
and often hairy.