Cockspur Hawthorn has a native range from western new England & southwest Quebec & southeast Ontario, to all of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky, most of Maryland and Indiana, southeast Michigan, and southeast Illinois, and northern Tennessee, growing lowland wet mesic and bottomlands to upland dry open woods and fields. It grows about 1 foot/year and lives about 75 to 100 years. It has small, oval glossy, thick leaves 1 to 4 inches long and widest and toothed above the middle, and turn orange to red sort of late in autumn. It bears lots of sharp 3 to 4 inch long thorns on the twigs. It bears white, dense flat-topped flower clusters in late May to mid-June. It bears red apple-like berries in mid-August lasting until January. It eventually develops a taproot, but it is easy to transplant B&B as a young tree. It has been the second most sold hawthorn in the Eastern and Midwestern US, after the Washington Hawthorn for decades, though the "Winter King' Green Hawthorn may now be the most commonly planted because of its great fruit display. It is somewhat commonly used by landscape architects on estates, professional landscapes, parks, campuses, and public areas.

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Honey bees get nectar, yellow brown pollen and honeydew from this plant.

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