The sheer abundance of cherry and plum tree blossom this year is so spectacular that it was featured on the local TV news last night.
The photos, taken just now on a nearby footpath, are of Prunus Spinosa aka Blackthorn. Hopefully there are enough pollinators around to ensure plenty of sloes (blackthorn fruits) next September.
They taste unbearably bitter but are used to flavour sloe gin, which is delicious.
#blossom #trees #blackthorn #Prunus #foraging
Whenever someone asks why in #Ogham, the #Blackthorn (Straif) represents spears, wounding, injuries, hurt etc. I do wonder if they have actually ever seen the tree.
#Blackthorn blossom
Blackthorn is one of the earliest trees to produce blossom, flowering in woods and hedgerows with clouds of snow-white petals in March and April. These delicate white flowers, once pollinated, turn into blue-black fruits later in the year – sloes – that are used to make wine, preserves and sloe gin.
Photograph: John Bridges
Blackthorn and Birdsong.
Witch wands.
Fairies.
Shillelagh sticks.
Magic.
Keeper of secrets.
Poison
And healing.
Protector of creatures.
Early for bees.
White starred abundance.
A trickster of trees.
Hedgerow spiking
The still chill breeze.
Exploring a new #wood to me #today. In #flower, in order of encounter, #primrose, #violet, wood #anemone, lesser #celandine, and the underspoken Dog’s Mercury. In fine leaf, biding their time #wild #garlic and ‘lords and ladies’. Coming out of the woods, the joy of #blackthorn in #blossom in the #hedgerow. #Spring is here! And the joy of #hazel #coppice and #oak standards. Proper #traditional #woodland #management. I
