Mediterranean buckthorn
Rhamnus alaternus
Family · Rhamnaceae · Irritating
The glossy evergreen shrub that fills hedges and rocky slopes in the south, with berries turning from red to black in summer. It feeds a lot of birds and no people.
Scrubland · Oak woods · Walls and rocks · Montado
Also known asItalian buckthorn
How to tell it
Alternate, leathery, dark glossy leaves with a finely toothed margin. Tiny yellow flowers in late winter, with no visible petals. Small berries, red then black.
What it is confused with
Mastic tree
Pistacia lentiscus
They share the scrub and the dark berries. Mastic tree has a compound leaf with several leaflets and smells of resin; buckthorn has a simple leaf and no smell.
What it is for
None as food: the berries are strong purgatives, as in the whole family. The hard wood served for small pieces and the bark gave a yellow dye.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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