Hawthorne berries

[Kipawa]

Does anyone know if they are safe for humans to eat them off the trees? One of the walks we take with Kipawa is an area where there are tons of hawthorne berries. Do birds eat them? Who/what eats them?

[Patty]

I used to eat hawthorn berries and with no ill effect but they don't taste particularly nice . Although my Basenjis sniff them they never attempt to eat them so I assume they're not good for them.

[TuckerVA]

Hawthorn is assumed to be a safe berry to eat. I have read the seeds are not so good, but in most cases, the fruit is consumed and the seeds are passed. Birds eat the fruit and spread the seeds… I have not been able to find any information validating that the seeds are toxic - most likely a legend as history shows that there have been many food and medicinal uses for Hawthorn over the ages.

[Kipawa]

Okay, so I was out on our dogwalk this morning and decided to eat one of the hawthorne berries. Not good at all! The texture is weird - very mooshy and very little flavour if any. However, I did come across a tree with these smaller orange fruit on them (the size of a large grape). Now THOSE are tasty. I believe they are a variety of plum, because they have their own 'pit' in them. Kipawa is not interested in them at all - he walks right past the ones on the ground.