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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.



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