How do you recognise Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)?

Leaf

Tournasol7, Wikimedia · CC BY 4.0

Blackthorn

Prunus spinosa L.

Also known as: Sloe

Family: Rosaceae

1 to 4 m tall, dense thorny bush

Hedgerows, waste ground, woodland edges

Flowering: March, before the leaves

Full sun

Part shade

Very hardy, to -25°C

❓ How do you recognise this plant?

Flowers in a dense white carpet even before the leaves — often from March. The blackthorn is thorny and its fruits are small, blue-black and very sour, whereas the cherry plum has no thorns and its fruits, yellow to red, are larger and sweeter.

🍃 Leaves

Small, ovate, finely toothed

🌸 Flowers

White, densely covering the twigs before the leaves

🍎 Fruits

Small blue-black plums (sloes), very sour, covered in bloom

🪵 Bark

Blackish, twigs thorny and rigid

🗺️ Distribution

Europe, western Asia, North Africa; very common in hedgerows throughout France.

🐝 Value for pollinators

Very early white flowering (before the leaves), an essential resource for the first bees and bumblebees of spring.

✂️ Horticultural uses

Planted as a defensive country hedge; fruits (sloes) harvested after frost for liqueurs and preserves.

⚠️ Possible toxicity

Seeds (stones) and wilted leaves rich in cyanogenic compounds, toxic in large quantities as in other Prunus; the fruits (sloes) are edible after bletting or frost.

⚠️ Look-alike species

Blackthorn

Prunus spinosa

Cherry plum

Prunus cerasifera

The blackthorn is thorny and its fruits are small, blue-black and very sour, whereas the cherry plum has no thorns and its fruits, yellow to red, are larger and sweeter.

Blackthorn

Prunus spinosa