Blackthorn

The Blackthorn is one of our smallest native trees – rarely more than three metres in height. It is usually seen in thickets, many little blackthorn trees growing from a common root-stock. The trunks of the older trees are dark grey/black, un-cracked yet rough to the touch. The trunks and branches, and the stiff twigs – and the whole thicket – are dark and dense. It has been believed that the fairy folk – the ‘Sidhean’ – watch us at our daily work from the impenetrable blackthorn thicket. From the dark twigs grow dark thorns – ‘drisan’ in Gaelic - protecting the leaf and flower buds from browsing creatures like deer. Tiny pink/white buds can be seen on the twigs in late Winter, soon swelling into opening white flower petals, the blossom – ‘blàar’ in Gaelic - sometimes covering the whole bush. As the blossom fades the new leaf shoots appear, a dark lime-green. The leaves are very small, and oval or spear-shaped, and finely-toothed. In Autumn they turn lemon yellow, but not all at the same time. The little green fruits turn blue/black in the Autumn, oval and often with a purple film, like small plums. They are in fact the primitive form of sweet juicy plums, but are sharp and tart to the taste, although pleasant if boiled and sweetened. These fruits are called ‘sluach’ in Gaelic, similar to the English ‘sloe’. Another Gaelic name for the fruits is ‘airneag’. The dark twisty stems of the Blackthorn have been used for walking sticks, and for the defensive club – the Irish ‘sheleilaigh’. They have been used for hedging, and long ago, they were planted as thorny barriers around hill-top forts. The common Gaelic name is seen in place-names such as Auchindrain near Inveraray – the ‘Field, or Place, of the Blackthorn’, and Port na Droighearn in Islay.