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Buckthorn

 

 

The buckthorn is not very well known in Estonia and it is confused with the alder buckthorn, or vice versa. Growing in dry alvar areas in North and West Estonia, they are more often encountered there than elsewhere. Despite the „puu“, tree part in its Estonian name the buckthorn mostly grows as a dense shrub like the alder buckthorn. The thorns sticking out at the tips of branches are characteristic for the buckthorn; they become nicely visible as autumn progresses. At present the trees are still well in leaf and the leaves of the buckthorn have a sharper tip and densely serrated margin. 

The fruits of the buckthorn are berry-like, black and small stone fruits or drupes, with two to four seeds. They have a bitter-nasty taste, are weakly poisonous and laxative. Alder buckthorn fruits are certainly poisonous compared to the buckthorn and note that some of the fruits remain without getting the black colouring, that is, they stay red.

 

Birds eat the buckthorn fruits happily. The seeds are not digested in the digestive tract of birds and so they spread buckthorn seeds together with a small dose of fertilizer to new sites.

 

Alder buckthorn

 

The alder buckthorn was described a while ago:

http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/17552