Present arms!

Plants used to be a unique defensive weapon used in fortifications with hawthorn being appreciated the most because it grows relatively fast even on poor soils and has thorns. Forcing one’s way through hawthorn thickets was a hard task in summer and in winter. Hawthorn also has an extensive and tangled up root system. The plant hindered regular attacks effectively and made digging underground tunnels, trenches as well as building besieging batteries and making shallow mining corridors very difficult.