The Milkweed Diaries

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Crabapples flowering....



At first we thought these thorny, thicketing little trees blooming over the past month were hawthorns. This one is branched out over the creek. It turns out they are crabapples. CoreyPine taught me how to tell the difference. The flowers smell divine.

It appears that we have both crabapples and hawthorns growing all over the place out here. Here's how to tell the difference between them: crabapples have leaves growing out of their thorns. Hawthorns have bare, leafless thorns. They are very similar-looking -- both in the apple family. Also, I haven't seen the hawthorns flower yet, but apparently the petals of their flowers don't taper in at the bottom like the crabapple petals do.

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