BC Conservation Data Centre: Species Summary
Crataegus macracantha
large-thorned hawthorn
| Scientific Name: | Crataegus macracantha Lodd. | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English Name: | large-thorned hawthorn | ||||||||||
| Classification / Taxonomy | |||||||||||
| Scientific Name - Concept Reference: | Phipps, J.B. and M. Muniyamma. 1980. A taxonomic revision of Crataegus (Rosaceae) in Ontario. Canadian Journal of Botany 58:1621-1699. | ||||||||||
| Classification Level: | Species | ||||||||||
| Taxonomy Comments: | Flora of North America (2014) recognizes the full species Crataegus macracantha with no subspecific taxa. | ||||||||||
| Species Group: | Vascular Plant | ||||||||||
| Species Code: | CRATMAC | ||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| Conservation Status / Legal Designation | |||||||||||
| Global Status: | G5 (Jul 2025) | ||||||||||
| Provincial Status: | S3 (Apr 2019) | ||||||||||
| BC List: | Blue | ||||||||||
| Provincial FRPA list: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Wildlife Act: | |||||||||||
| COSEWIC Status: | |||||||||||
| SARA Schedule: | |||||||||||
| General Status Canada: | |||||||||||
| Ecology & Life History | |||||||||||
| General Description: | |||||||||||
| Technical Description: | |||||||||||
| Similar Species: | |||||||||||
| Habitats: (Type / Subtype / Dependence) |
Agriculture / Hedgerow / Facultative - occasional use
Anthropogenic / Roadside/Ditch / Facultative - occasional use |
||||||||||
| Provincial Phenology: (1st half of month/ 2nd half of month) |
|||||||||||
| Elevation (m) (min / max): | Provincial: | ||||||||||
| Known Pests: | |||||||||||
| Pollen Vector: | |||||||||||
| Pollinator: | |||||||||||
| Dispersal: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Inventory | |||||||||||
| Inventory Priority: | |||||||||||
| Ownership of occurrences (Known locations): | |||||||||||
| Inventory Need: | |||||||||||
| Economic Attributes | |||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||
| Endemic: | |||||||||||
| Global Range Comment: | This taxon "is the most widespread North American hawthorn," occurring throughout southern Canada from New Brunswick west to British Columbia and Maine west to Oregon, south in mountainous uplands to Arizona and New Mexico, east to Kansas to western Virginia (FNA 2014, Weakley and the Southeastern Flora Team 2025). Range extent was estimated to be over 5.7 million square kilometers using herbarium specimens, photo-based observations, and NatureServe Network occurrence data documented between 1984 and 2025 (GBIF 2025, iNaturalist 2025, NatureServe 2025, RARECAT 2025, SEINet 2025). | ||||||||||
| Disjunct, more common elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Peripheral, major distribution elsewhere: | N | ||||||||||
| Authors / Contributors | |||||||||||
| Global Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| Provincial Information Author: | |||||||||||
| Last Updated: | |||||||||||
| Last Literature Search: | |||||||||||
| References and Related Literature | |||||||||||
Flora of North America Editorial Committee (FNA). 2014b. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Vol. 9. Magnoliophyta: Picramniaceae to Rosaceae. Oxford University Press, New York. xxiv + 713 pp. |
|||||||||||
Weakley, A.S., and Southeastern Flora Team. 2025. Flora of the southeastern United States Web App. Edition of February 18, 2025. University of North Carolina Herbarium (NCU), North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Online. Available: https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu (accessed 2025). |
|||||||||||
Please visit the website Conservation Status Ranks for definitions of the data fields used in this summary report.
Suggested Citation:
B.C. Conservation Data Centre. Species Summary: Crataegus macracantha. B.C. Minist. of Environment. Available: https://a100.gov.bc.ca/pub/eswp/ (accessed Jun 8, 2026).