TEJOCOTE
TEJOCOTE
(Crataegus pubescens)
A tree of tejocote late in the season
Family: Rosaceae
Synonyms: Cragaegus mexicana, Crataegus stipulacea
Other names: Mexican hawthorn.
Tejcote is a hawthorn. It is a native of Mexico.
Description:
A large shrub or a small tree with a dense crown, deciduous, 5-10 m tall, often equipped with spines; trunk straight, branches rigid, bark reddish gray, strpped.
Leaves simple, alternate, elliptic or rhomboid-ovate lanceolate, acute, irregularly toothed, dorsal surface dark green and glabrous, ventral surface paler and sometimes pubescent.
Flowers of tejokote
Flowers off white, borne in umbels of 2-6 flowers, 7-10 mm long and 2 cm wide, freshly opened flowers pleasantly fragrant.
Fruit globose to oblong pome, orange-red, 2 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, ripening in late winter only shortly before the flowers of the following year.
Seeds upto 3, brown, smooth, surrounded by a hard woody endocarp.
Utilization:
Tejocote fruit resembles a crabapple. It has a apple like flavour. It is popularly eaten raw as well as cooked in Mexica. It is also canned there.
Tejocote fruits on tree
Tejocote is the main ingredient used in ponche, the traditional Mexican hot fruit punch that is served at various festivals like Christmas, New Year's eve, and Day of the Dead when the fruit as well as a candy prepared from it are used as offerings to the dead. Rosaries made of tejocote fruit are part of altar decorations..
Tejocote has a high pectin content. Therefore it is also used as a raw material in industry to extract pectin.
Cultivation:
Though tejote bears edible fruits, yet it may not be suitable for growing as an orchard fruit. But it has been considered to be quite suitable for planting as a street plant or a hedge plant or as a specimen plant in the gardens.
The plant can grow nearly in type soils. It can also tolerate drought. Tejcote can withstand winds but is sensitive to maritime exposure. It can tolerate atmospheric pollution.
New plants are raised from seed. Tejcote seeds are, however, not very grower friendly and the germination can at times be erratic. Suitable margin should therefore be kept be kept for such unforeseen problems.
The seedlings take 5-8 years for coming into bearing.