Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family, Rosaceae. It is native to Europe and West Asia, and has been naturalized in parts of North America.
The fruits are used to make sloe gin in Great Britain and patxaran in Basque Country. The wood is used to make walking sticks, including the Irish shillelagh.
Description
Prunus spinosa is a large deciduous shrub or small tree growing to tall, with blackish bark and dense, stiff, spiny branches. The leaves are oval, long and broad, with a serrated margin. The flowers are about in diameter, with five creamy-white petals; they are produced shortly before the leaves in early spring, and are hermaphroditic and insect-pollinated. The fruit, called a "sloe", is a drupe in diameter, black with a purple-blue waxy bloom, ripening in autumn. In the United Kingdom, they are traditionally harvested in October or November, after the first frosts, as this makes the skin softer and easier to process for the purposes of making sloe gin. Sloes are thin-fleshed, with a very strongly astringent flavour when fresh.
Prunus spinosa is frequently confused with the related P. cerasifera (cherry plum), particularly in early spring when the latter starts flowering somewhat earlier than P. spinosa. They can be distinguished by flower colour, pure white in P. spinosa, creamy white in P. cerasifera. In addition, the sepals are bent backwards in P. cerasifera, but not in P. spinosa. They can be distinguished in winter by the shrubbier habit with stiffer, wider-angled branches of P. spinosa; in summer by the relatively narrower leaves of P. spinosa, more than twice as long as broad;
Prunus spinosa has a tetraploid (2n=4x=32) set of chromosomes.
Like many other fruits with pits, the pit of the sloe contains trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide.
Etymology
The specific name is a Latin term indicating the pointed and thornlike spur shoots characteristic of this species. The common name is due to the thorny nature of the shrub, and possibly its very dark bark: it has a much darker bark than the white-thorn (hawthorn), to which it is contrasted. and the Danish . It is also locally naturalized in Tasmania and eastern North America. Similarly, in Northern Greece, they make a blackthorn liqueur by infusing tsipouro with the fruit and adding sugar.
In Navarre, Spain, a popular liqueur called is made with sloes. In France a liqueur called , or just or , is made from the young shoots in spring (rather than from fruits in autumn). (, likewise, is an infusion of early shoots of blackthorn macerated with sugar in wine.)
Wood
Blackthorn makes an excellent fire wood that burns slowly with a good heat and little smoke. The wood takes a fine polish and is used for tool handles and canes. Straight blackthorn stems have traditionally been made into walking sticks or clubs (known in Ireland as a shillelagh). In the British Army, blackthorn sticks are carried by commissioned officers of the Royal Irish Regiment; this is a tradition also in Irish regiments in some Commonwealth countries.
Inks
Rashi, a Talmudist and Tanakh commentator of the High Middle Ages, writes that the sap (or gum) of P. spinosa (which he refers to as the ) was used as an ingredient in the making of some inks used for manuscripts.
A "sloe-thorn worm" used as fishing bait is mentioned in the 15th-century work, The Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle.
In culture
In the United Kingdom, the term 'blackthorn winter' is an old phrase originating in rural England to describe a cold period in early Spring when blackthorn is in flower.
The flowering of the blackthorn may have been associated with the ancient Celtic celebration of Imbolc, traditionally celebrated on February 1 in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man.
In Middle English, was used to denote something of trifling value. and is first attested in William Somervile's 1735 poem The Chace. , meanwhile, is first attested in A. J. Wilson's 1867 novel Vashti.
The name of the dark-coloured cloth prunella was derived from the French word , meaning 'sloe'.
Notes
References
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