A froth of white blossom on bare black twigs in March, weeks before any leaf appears
Blackthorn. Hawthorn leafs first and flowers in May — the classic discrimination.
Nature · Trees
Blackthorn
Deciduous · to 6–7 m · flowers March
Prunus spinosa — Rosaceae
A dense, viciously spiny hedgerow shrub that throws a froth of white blossom over bare black twigs in March, weeks before its leaves appear — the 'blackthorn winter' of cold snaps that often accompanies it. Its blue-black fruit is the sloe, flavouring of sloe gin, and its hard wood makes the Irish shillelagh.
How to know it
How to spot them
- ▸White flowers on bare black twigs in March, before any leaves — the reverse of hawthorn
- ▸Side shoots harden into long, sharp spines that end the twig; bark very dark, almost black
- ▸Small dull oval leaves, finely toothed, appearing after the flowers
- ▸Round blue-black sloes with a grey bloom, ripening after the first frosts, very astringent
- ▸Suckers freely into dense, impenetrable thickets
How to know it
Side shoots harden into long sharp spines that end the twig, on very dark, almost black bark
Blackthorn. Hawthorn's thorns grow from the shoot and the twig ends in a bud.
Round blue-black fruit with a grey bloom, fiercely astringent, traditionally picked after the first frost to steep in gin
Blackthorn — sloes.
Its hard, dark wood makes the Irish cudgel and walking stick, and its early flowering names a spell of late cold
Blackthorn — the shillelagh, and the 'blackthorn winter'.
The flaming tar-barrel bush carried at Allendale and the 'crown of thorns' of medieval legend are both attributed to it
Blackthorn.
Its fruit is the wild ancestor thought to have crossed with cherry plum to give the domestic plum
Blackthorn — Prunus spinosa is one putative parent of Prunus domestica.
Quick-fire facts
- •Prunus spinosa — spinosa means 'thorny' or 'spiny'
- •Flowers before it leafs, in March; hawthorn leafs before it flowers, in May
- •The fruit is the sloe: a drupe, blue-black with a waxy bloom, too astringent to eat raw
- •Sloe gin is made by pricking sloes and steeping them in gin with sugar
- •Blackthorn winter is the name for the cold snap that often coincides with its flowering
- •The Irish shillelagh is traditionally cut from blackthorn
- •Prunus spinosa is thought to be one of the parents, with cherry plum (P. cerasifera), of the cultivated plum P. domestica
- •It suckers aggressively, making the impenetrable scrub valued by nesting birds and by the brown hairstreak butterfly, which lays on its young growth
Drill it — 7 cards
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Sources
- Woodland Trust — Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)