And it wasn’t just insects that were attracted to this food source. Another common name is Bread and Cheese and children would at one time nibble on the young leaves which are said to have a slightly nutty flavour.
Of one thing I am certain, our countryside would be much the poorer without hawthorn’s brilliant spring display. As H E Bates wrote in The Green Hedges: “Hawthorn bloom rose on the four sides of every field, making the air over-faint with scent. Nothing else could have created so happily the first rich drowsy feeling of summer.”