Glossy evergreen leaves in a tuft at the top of bare stems, with yellow-green winter flowers and highly poisonous black berries
Spurge laurel.
Nature · Shrubs
Spurge laurel
Native · flowers Dec/Jan–Apr · open woods and hedges on chalk and limestone
Daphne laureola — Thymelaeaceae
An evergreen woodland shrub of chalky soils, with glossy, leathery leaves in tufts at the tops of its stems and small yellow-green flowers in winter. It is neither a spurge nor a laurel, and its black berries are highly poisonous to people, although birds eat them.
How to spot them
- ▸Evergreen, glossy, dark green, narrow leathery leaves crowded in a rosette-like tuft at the tips of the stems
- ▸Small yellow-green, tubular, four-lobed flowers in clusters at the base of the leaf tuft, in winter to early spring
- ▸Egg-shaped berries that turn from green to black; the whole plant is poisonous
- ▸Unbranched or sparsely branched, up to 1.5 m, in open woods (especially beech) on chalk
- ▸Look-alike: mezereon is deciduous and flowers pink on bare wood; laurel and rhododendron have larger leaves throughout the stem
How to know it
Despite its name it is neither a spurge nor a laurel, but a daphne in the family Thymelaeaceae
Spurge laurel (Daphne laureola).
Birds can safely eat its black berries, which are highly poisonous to people
Spurge laurel (Wildlife Trusts).
A native evergreen that flowers in the depths of winter in beechwoods on chalk
Spurge laurel.
One of two native British daphnes; the other, mezereon, is deciduous with pink flowers on bare wood
Spurge laurel.
It looks like a laurel, with glossy dark green leaves, but is only distantly related to any true laurel
Spurge laurel.
Quick-fire facts
- •Daphne laureola, family Thymelaeaceae; laureola means 'little laurel'; unrelated to true laurels (Lauraceae) and to spurges (Euphorbia)
- •TOXICITY: highly poisonous. Wildlife Trusts: 'highly poisonous' to humans, though birds eat the berries. Sap can irritate skin. Do not eat any part
- •Native and widespread but scattered across England and Wales; one of two native British daphnes, the other being mezereon (Wildlife Trusts)
- •Flowers from December to April, with the main viewing window January to April; flowers are yellow-green, tubular and four-lobed
- •Grows in open woodlands and hedgerows on chalky soil, especially under beech, to about 1.5 m
- •Leaves are narrow, shiny and clustered at the stem tips
- •Dispersed by birds that swallow the berries safely
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Sources
- The Wildlife Trusts — Spurge laurel