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United States / Grow / cockspur hawthorn

cockspur hawthorn (Crataegus crus-galli)
Photo: (c) Taro Ietaka, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

cockspur hawthorn

Crataegus crus-galli · Rosaceae · all Crataegus records · Wikipedia

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Is this one for your yard?

Enter your ZIP to see whether this is legal to plant in your state, and whether it survives your winter.

Yes, cockspur hawthorn is generally rated fire resistant, although one field-trial score falls just below the recommended range.

Four of five assessments favor it: the USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs call it Firewise, while extension services in Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina rate its flammability low. Idaho Firewise gives it 7 of 10.

The agreement is stronger than the labels alone suggest. The eastern selector places it in the most favorable category on its four-point Firewise scale. Ohio’s L falls in the recommended portion of its five-band scale, and Virginia’s L carries the same recommendation on a three-point scale. North Carolina’s low-flammability tag supports those judgments, although the Toolbox does not document who assigned its values. Idaho’s field-trial scale is the caution: 7 lies in its mixed 4-to-7 band, one point below the recommended range.

Cockspur hawthorn is a roughly 25-foot tree in the rose family, native across much of the eastern and central United States. It grows in full sun, needs little water, and is hardy to USDA zone 5a. Its large thorns, disease sensitivity, and possible windthrow remain practical planting concerns, but they do not reverse the repeated low-flammability ratings. The sensible conclusion is favorable but measured: several regional services recommend the tree, while the Idaho result keeps the case from being unanimous.

Form
tree
Mature height
~25 ft
Light
Full sun
Water need
low
Rated in
North Carolina / southeastern US; Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US +1
On this lot

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence
Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Placement evidence
3 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions
North Carolina / southeastern US; Ohio / Midwest; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic; eastern US; southern Idaho / Intermountain
Typed publication scope: 3 scopes across 3 cited fire sources
  • Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database · Official scoped edition
    • Southern Idaho (ID footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2013-11-08

      The official database labels itself "For Southern Idaho" and describes Idaho residents at the urban-rangeland interface. FireApproved publishes 419 existing plant owners that cite its scored rows. This bounded Southern Idaho scope is regional context, not statewide coverage or a conclusion that the score transfers unchanged to every Idaho site.

  • Firewise Landscaping (OSU Extension Bulletin 921) · Official scoped edition
    • OH; partial normalized coverage · 2006-03-01

      Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.

  • Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
    • VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15

      Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution
Documented in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
Native range
Current cited native range in AL, AR, CT, DC, DE, FL, GA, IA, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, NJ, NY, OK, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, VT, WI, WV.
USDA hardiness
Documented minimum 3b; no upper limit is documented.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Native and introduced range evidence

These are exact U.S. botanical-area records from the cited range source. Native and introduced describe biogeographic relationship, not fire performance or planting approval. Doubtful and extinct rows stay visible but do not count as current presence.

Current native

32

exact source areas

Current introduced

0

exact source areas

Qualified

0

doubtful or extinct source rows

32 native source areas · World Checklist of Vascular Plants, version 16 v16, as of 2026-06-04
  • Alabama (AL)
  • Arkansas (AR)
  • Connecticut (CT)
  • District of Columbia (DC)
  • Delaware (DE)
  • Florida (FL)
  • Georgia (GA)
  • Iowa (IA)
  • Illinois (IL)
  • Indiana (IN)
  • Kansas (KS)
  • Kentucky (KY)
  • Louisiana (LA)
  • Massachusetts (MA)
  • Maryland (MD)
  • Michigan (MI)
  • Minnesota (MN)
  • Missouri (MO)
  • Mississippi (MS)
  • North Carolina (NC)
  • New Jersey (NJ)
  • New York (NY)
  • Oklahoma (OK)
  • Pennsylvania (PA)
  • Rhode I. (RI)
  • South Carolina (SC)
  • Tennessee (TN)
  • Texas (TX)
  • Virginia (VA)
  • Vermont (VT)
  • Wisconsin (WI)
  • West Virginia (WV)

The lossless worldwide derivative is retained once in the research corpus; object pages repeat only exact U.S. areas needed by the local lens. The JSON twin carries the same page assertions.

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (4)

Corroboration (1 rows from 1 source)

Mid-scale / conditional (1)

Same genus in the directory · the Crataegus group page

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

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Crataegus crus-galli (Cockspur hawthorn). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/crataegus-crusgalli/. Last verified 2026-08-23.