[GPI]

Irish native Blackthorn tree ... Prunus spinosa ... Draigean

Blackthorn is a tree that many of us here in Ireland believe is so Irish that it cannot be found beyond these shores. You may be surprised to know that this native can be found growing in many Nordic and Mediterranean countries, even occasionally cropping up as far away as Iran.

. Blackthorn fruit, flower, stem and thorn, photo / pic / image.
Scientific classification.
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Prunoideae
Genus: Prunus
Species: P. spinosa

Chromosome number: 2n=32.

Where blackthorn is to be found, it may be known by its Latin name Prunus spinosa or one of its many common names, such as sloe, wild plum, wishing thorn or mother of the wood. A close relative of cherries and plums, blackthorn is a deciduous (sheds and renews leaves annually), small tree or large shrub, growing up to 4 metres high at a medium growth rate.
It is often to be found growing wild in hedgerows, on the edges of wooded areas or popping up on rough farmland. The types of conditions that the adaptable blackthorn grows under are varied; it appears to cope with everything except extremely wet and acidic soils.

Pretty flowers and sour fruit.
March through April is one of the best times to spot the wild blackthorn, at this time snow white, five petalled flowers emerge for all to see. The blooms appear before the leaves unfold; this is one of the easiest ways to tell the difference between blackthorn and hawthorn (whitethorn), its flowers before leaves for blackthorn and leaves before flowers for hawthorn.
The early blackthorn flowers are followed by the finely serrated, dull-green, oval leaves, which in turn are followed by blackish purple sloes in autumn. Sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn, are extremely sour especially if they have not received a frosting, so they tended to be used in the past for the production of jellies and as flavouring for sloe gin. The juice of unripe fruits leaves an almost indelible mark on any fabrics it touches, so beware of your best clothes whilst picking them.

Shamrocks and shillelaghs.
Leaves, flowers and fruit are easily supported on the trees smooth dark intersecting branches. This thicket like growth combined with blackthorns notoriously vicious woody thorns, and the ability to regrow quickly after cutting, makes for an ideal stock proof new hedging material or as a replacement plant for existing hedgerow gaps.
Grown as a hedge, blackthorn, with its sharp thorns will provide cover and nesting for many of our native birds as well providing a run for small mammals. A fair amount of insects are also known to flock to the tree, especially in spring when the subtle scents of its flowers attract the insects vital for pollination. Not as vital to the trees survival, but still linked by nature are the caterpillars of the brown and black hairstreak butterfly, who use the blackthorns leaves for food.
I can’t finish a piece on the blackthorn without mentioning an item known as the shillelagh, a piece of wood work which has, at this stage become part of that Irish cliché “shamrocks and shillelaghs”. The wood of the blackthorns is ideally suited to the manufacture of these clubs/walking sticks, due to its hardness to lightness ratio.


Chart shows approximate distribution of the native tree within Ireland, each dot is a 10km square in which the species grows.


Video. Sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn, are extremely sour, as this lad found out.

Back to native Irish trees.

Blackthorn Images courtesy
Haruta Ovidiu, University of Oradea, Romania
www.forestryimages.org
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