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These are the arboretum's four mayhaws. This is definitely the most famous, at least in our region, member of the genus Crataegus.
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Right now in the arboretum we are happy to see pristine-looking mayhaw fruits, something that we haven't had for more than 5 years.
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Not only do we see red-ripe fruit, we also have green fruits coming in behind them. Look how healthy the leaves look! A new era is dawning.
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All efforts to control the arboretum's cedar apple rust were unsuccessful. In 2018, we undertook to spray the mayhaws with a fungicide (you can see photos of that here). We made multiple applications and documented the development of the cedar apple rust galls. As previously explained on this blog, we ultimately made the decision to remove the eastern red cedars (Juniperus virginiana) in favor of the crabapple tree and various haws. This process was carried out over several years, as documented in 2021 and 2023.
What we're observing now with the improved health of the Mayhaws (in both leaf and fruit) is that we made the correct decision, insofar as our goals are now being achieved.
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Nevertheless, we're not entirely out of the woods. These three groups of mayhaw fruits, all collected today, show that it may be a year or two before the disease is entirely purged. The majority of fruits we observed today were healthy (see far left duo). Some had a small blemish. A few have been transformed into monstrous mutants, reminding one of John Carpenter's 'The Thing' (see center green fruit, studded with pink horns). If these tell you they're "just fine" or "all better," don't believe them. Finally, as pictured on the far right, we can see that some fruit simply withered on the tree and failed to grow at all. This was a failure for the cedar apple rust as well, as it requires the developed fruit to spread the infection.
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This is unsettling to look upon, but we feel obligated to document it. Yuck.
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While carefully examining the trees for new fruit, several dead branches were noticed, so a little pruning was necessary. When working around mayhaws, watch out for spines! These branches will poke you.
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