Hi all, I'm trying to put together an amateur sort of monograph for the various Crataegus plants involved in producing the medicinal extracts. The problem is, I'm having trouble finding a lot of information (without shelling out 60 bucks for the AHP monograph). Any ideas on where I might be able to find a detailed botanical description of Hawthorn plants? How about the macroscopic characteristics of various species of Crataegus? It's only going to get worse when I start my commercial sources and handling sections... Thanks for all of your help, - Alex C.
Hello Alex, I don't think you'll find too much online. I think you should seek out the following: VOLUME 35: Revision of Crataegus section Crataegus and nothosection Crataeguineae (Rosaceae-Maloideae) in the Old World, Knud Ib Christensen, 199 pp, 1992. ISBN 0-912861-35-5. Macklin J.A. and J.B. Phipps 2001. Sargent's types in Crataegus series Coccineae (Rosaceae) Harvard Papers in Botany 7(1) Phipps, J.B.; Muniyamma, M. 1980. A taxonomic revision of Crataegus (Rosaceae) in Ontario. Can. J. Bot. 58:1621-1699. All of these are going to skew highly towards the taxonomy of Crataegus, which is what I associate with the word "monograph". You might also seek out some of the northeastern US floras - there are some excellent regional ones (although the names escape me at the moment). In any case, this is going to involve a trip to a university library (or calling ahead and seeing if you can access the research library at the US National Arboretum - I've no idea if it is open to the public or not - or a similar research-focused botanical garden / arboretum), though.
Thanks so much for your help. I'll head on over to UMCP, and see if I can find those resources. -Alex
