Hawthorn common - unpretentious healer

The common hawthorn is a plant belonging to the angiosperms department, the dicotyledonous class, the family rosaceous. It also has other names: hawker, hawthorn prickly, hawthorn smoothed, lady-tree, glaucus, hawthorn blood-red, tree of virginity, Crataegus laevigata (in Latin). In nature it grows in the steppes, forests, parks of Europe and in North America. It is widely spread to the birds, who, eating fruits, spread pits.

Hawthorn ordinary has a smooth bark. Spines about 5 cm long, located on the branches. Young shoots are painted in brownish-red colors. The leaves are dark green on top, below are lighter. On the lower branches they are solid, the rest - incised into three parts, pointed, jagged. Hawthorn flowers are white or pink, five-petalled, collected in inflorescences, 1.5 cm in diameter. Fruits are red or reddish brown, about 1 cm in diameter, spherical or berry-shaped, with 2-3 bones inside. Blossoms in June, the fruits are ripening by September.

This plant can be grown as a shrub or as a tree. It all depends on your desire and ability to periodically cut it. If you let it grow without cutting, then the tree can reach 12 m in height.

Common hawthorn easily tolerates pruning, since 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 spring all shoots must be shortened by a third. From group landings it is possible to form squares, spheres, pyramids.

Hawthorn ordinary grows on almost any soil. It is frost-resistant, drought-resistant, shade-tolerant. A plant of honey, readily visited by bees.

Fruits are consumed both fresh and processed. Of these, compotes, jam, jelly, tea and coffee substitutes are prepared. From dried fruits make flour, used for making fortified bread. The bark of this plant is used to color the tissues in red, yellow and brown colors.

Flowers collected in early June in dry weather, fruits - in September, bark and leaves - during the growing season. All collected raw materials, which have a pleasant smell, are well dried and stored in paper bags.

In hawthorn, literally everything is useful: fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, bark. In each part of the plant valuable substances are found that are used by both official medicine and folk medicine. For example, the flowers of hawthorn are used for swelling, rheumatism, hyperthyroidism, migraines, hypertension, for improving sleep, general strengthening of the body. Of mature fruit, a drug that stimulates the heart is made. The bark, taken from young branches, is used for diarrhea and as an antiplatelet agent.

A wonderful plant of hawthorn! The properties and the effect of the drugs from it on humans are very different. Hawthorn helps with headaches, it is used to treat herpes. Despite the non-toxicity and the possibility of long-term use of drugs, infusions, decoctions, do not exceed the dosage. Excessive consumption of fresh fruits can cause nausea, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmia.

Treatment with hawthorn is undesirable in hypotension, during lactation and with individual intolerance.