Black hawthorn buckthorn
Rhamnus lycioides
Family · Rhamnaceae · Irritating
The rigid, thorn-filled shrub that closes the dry scrub of the southeast, with tiny leaves and branches that all end in a point. It is the plant that makes a dry slope impassable.
Scrubland · Walls and rocks · Montado · Uplands
Also known asMediterranean buckthorn
How to tell it
Grey, rigid branches set almost at right angles and ending in a spine. Very small, narrow leaves grouped in tufts. Small fruits turning from red to black.
What it is confused with
Mediterranean buckthorn
Rhamnus alaternus
Same family, both with dark berries. Italian buckthorn has a broad glossy leaf and no thorns; this one is all thorns with a tiny leaf. Neither is eaten.
Open sheet →What it is for
None as food: as in the whole family, the fruits are strong purgatives. It served as a living hedge and firewood, and southern birds depend on it heavily in late summer.