A thorny flowering shrub or bush common in northern latitudes, known to have grown in the foothills and valleys of the Misty Mountains. Bilbo apparently found it in the north after his escape from Goblin-town; he was starving at the time, and so he was disappointed to find that the hawthorn-berries (or 'haws') had not yet appeared.1 Long afterwards and far to the south, Gandalf and his party camped under a huge old hawthorn on their journey from Isengard after the confrontation with Saruman.
Notes
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Hawthorn is sometimes called 'May' or 'Mayflower', because it blossoms in the month of May, with its haws fruiting in late summer. We don't have precise dates for events in Bilbo Baggins' journey, but we know that he set out at the end of April, so he probably came across hawthorn in the Vales of Anduin in June of July, too early for the fruit of the May tree to have appeared. Incidentally, the name 'May' for this shrub is the likely source of the Hobbit-name 'May' used in the Shire (Samwise Gamgee had both a sister and an aunt with that name).
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- Updated 9 May 2012
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