[4] The hermaphrodite flowers are produced in late spring (May to early June in its native area) in corymbs of 5–25 together; they have numerous red stamens and a single style and are moderately fragrant.

The flowers are white, frequently pink[5] pollinated by midges, bees, and other insects, and later in the year bear numerous haws.

The haw is a small, oval, dark red fruit about 10 mm long, berry-like, but structurally a pome containing a single seed within a stone, the pyrene.

[6][7] Other common names include may, mayblossom, maythorn, (as the plant generally flowers in May) quickthorn, whitethorn, motherdie, and haw.

[10] It is also found in northwestern Africa and Western Asia,[8] and has escaped to North America, e.g. the Pacific Northwest.

[17] Hawthorn petals are used in the medieval English recipe for spinee, an almond milk-based pottage[18][19] recorded in The Forme of Cury by the head chef of King Richard II, c. 1390.

Its spines and close branching habit render it effectively livestock- and human-proof, with some basic maintenance.

The most widely used hybrid is C. × media (C. monogyna × C. laevigata), of which several cultivars are known, including the very popular 'Paul's Scarlet' with dark pink double flowers.

[24] In Bosnia, women would sometimes place a piece of hawthorn behind the headcloth of a recently deceased person, and then throw away the remaining twig on their way home.

[24] Among the South Slavs, stakes made of hawthorn or blackthorn wood were considered effective in impaling vampires.

[26] An ancient specimen, and reputedly the oldest tree of any species in France, is to be found alongside the church at Saint Mars sur la Futaie, Mayenne.

The original tree at Glastonbury Abbey, felled in the 1640s during the English Civil War,[28] has been propagated as the cultivar 'Biflora'.