Taxon: Prunus spinosa L.

Common names:

• blackthorn   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• sloe   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – English
  
• hei ci li   (Source: F ChinaEng ) – Transcribed Chinese
  
• épine noire   (Source: Zander ed17 ) – French
  
• prunellier   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – French
  
• prunier   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – French
  
• gewöhnliche Schlehe   (Source: Zander ed17 ) – German
  
• Schlehdorn   (Source: Zander ed14 ) – German
  
• Schlehe   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• Schwarzdorn   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – German
  
• prugnolo   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – Italian
  
• spino nero   (Source: Mansf Ency ) – Italian
  
• abrunheiro   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Portuguese
  
• ciruelo silvestre   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• endrino   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• espino negro   (Source: Dict Rehm ) – Spanish
  
• slån   (Source: Vara kulturvaxt namn ) – Swedish
  

More:

see MMPND for additional names in foreign scripts

Economic importance:

• Environmental: boundary/barrier/support   (fide Dict Gard)
  
• Environmental: ornamental   (fide Dict Gard)
  
• Environmental: revegetator   (for land reclamation fide L. Gilbert, pers. comm. 1998)
  
• Human food: beverage base   (used for making sloe gin fide Pl Book)
  
• Human food: fruit   (fide Dict Econ Pl; F ChinaEng)
  
• Gene sources: cold tolerance for plum   (through graft stocks fide Acta Hort 290:262. 1991)
  
• Gene sources: drought resistance for plum   (through graft stocks fide Acta Hort 290:262. 1991)
  
• Gene sources: graft stock relative for apricot   (fide Acta Hort 290:86. 1991)
  
• Gene sources: graft stock relative for peach   (based on polyploid hybrids with Prunus salicina fide Acta Hort 224:340-343. 1988)
  
• Gene sources: graft stock relative for plum   (fide Acta Hort 290:262. 1991)
  
• Gene sources: probable progenitor of plum   (fide Breed Pl Tree Crops 161, 184. 2009)
  
• Gene sources: secondary genetic relative of Japanese plum   (based on crosses with Prunus salicina fide Acta Hort 224:340. 1988)
  
• Gene sources: secondary genetic relative of plum   (fide Breed Pl Tree Crops 161, 184. 2009)
  
• Medicines: folklore   (fide CRC MedHerbs ed2; Herbs Commerce ed2)
  
• Vertebrate poisons: mammals   (fide Cooper & Johnson ed2)
  

More:

View toxicology references for Prunus spinosa from FDA Poisonous Plant Database

View phytochemical or ethnobotanical data from Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

Distributional range:

• ASIA-TEMPERATE
  Western Asia: Iran [n.w.]; Turkey
  Caucasus: Armenia; Azerbaijan; Georgia; Russian Federation - Ciscaucasia, Dagestan
• EUROPE
  Northern Europe: Denmark; Finland; Ireland; Norway; Sweden; United Kingdom
  Middle Europe: Austria; Belgium; Czech Republic; Germany; Hungary; Netherlands; Poland; Slovakia; Switzerland
  East Europe: Belarus; Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania; Moldova; Russian Federation - European part; Ukraine [incl. Krym]
  Southeastern Europe: Albania; Bulgaria; Croatia; Greece; Italy [incl. Sardinia, Sicily]; Macedonia; Montenegro; Romania; Serbia; Slovenia
  Southwestern Europe: France [incl. Corsica]; Portugal; Spain [incl. Baleares]

• also cultivated

References:

• Afonin, A. N., S. L. Greene, N. I. Dzyubenko, & A. N. Frolov, eds. Interactive agricultural ecological atlas of Russia and neighboring countries. Economic plants and their diseases, pests and weeds (on-line resource).
• Aldén, B., S. Ryman & M. Hjertson. 2009. Våra kulturväxters namn - ursprung och användning. Formas, Stockholm (Handbook on Swedish cultivated and utility plants, their names and origin).
• Aradhya, M. K. et al. 2004. Molecular characterization of variability and relationships among seven cultivated and selected wild species of Prunus L. using amplified fragment length polymorphism. Sci. Hort. 103:131–144. [Prunus spinosa grouped with P. domestica, and P. cerasifera].
• Bouhadida, M. et al. 2007. Chloroplast DNA diversity in Prunus and its implication on genetic relationships. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 132:670–679. [this study examined Prunus spinosa and compled hybrids including this species used as a graft stocks].
• Cooper, M. R. & A. W. Johnson. 1998. Poisonous plants and fungi in Britain: animal and human poisoning.
• Davis, P. H., ed. 1965–1988. Flora of Turkey and the east Aegean islands.
• Duke, J. A. et al. 2002. CRC Handbook of medicinal herbs.
• Encke, F. et al. 1984. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 13. Auflage.
• Encke, F. et al. 1993. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 14. Auflage.
• Erhardt, W. et al. 2002. Zander: Handwörterbuch der Pflanzennamen, 17. Auflage.
• Euro+Med Editorial Committee. Euro+Med Plantbase: the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity (on-line resource).
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 2010. Ecocrop (on-line resource).
• Gilbert, L. 1998. pers. comm. [re. English common names].
• Hancock, J. F. et al. 2008. Chapter 9. Peaches. In: Hancock, J. F., ed., Temperate fruit crop breeding: germplasm to genomics. 265–298. [this review listed Prunus spinosa as one of the species that has been hybridized with P. persica].
• Hanelt, P., ed. 2001. Mansfeld's encyclopedia of agricultural and horticultural crops. Volumes 1-6. 1:518–519.
• Hartmann, W. & M. Neumüller. 2009. Plum breeding. In: Jain, S. M. & P.M. Priyadarshan, eds., Breeding plantation tree crops: temperate species. 161–231. [this review commented on Prunus spinosa as a tetraploid species probably involved in the origin of P. domestica].
• Huxley, A., ed. 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening.
• Komarov, V. L. et al., eds. 1934–1964. Flora SSSR.
• Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. Hortus third.
• Mabberley, D. J. 1997. The plant-book: a portable dictionary of the vascular plants, ed. 2.
• Markle, G. M. et al., eds. 1998. Food and feed crops of the United States, ed. 2.
• McGuffin, M., J. T. Kartesz, A. Y. Leung, & A. O. Tucker. 2000. Herbs of commerce, ed. 2.
• Mehlenbacher, S. A. et al. 1991. Apricots (Prunus). Acta Hort. 290:65–110.
• Mouterde, P. 1966–. Nouvelle flore du Liban et de la Syrie.
• Mowrey, B. D. & D. J. Werner. 1990. Phylogenetic relationships among species of Prunus as inferred by isozyme markers. Theor. Appl. Genet. 80:129–133. [this study found Prunus spinosa among plum species].
• Porcher, M. H. et al. Searchable World Wide Web Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) (on-line resource).
• Quézel, P. & S. Santa. 1962–1963. Nouvelle flore de l'Algerie.
• Ramming, D. W. & V. Cociu. 1991. Plums (Prunus). Acta Hort. 290:235–290.
• Rechinger, K. H., ed. 1963–. Flora iranica.
• Rehm, S. 1994. Multilingual dictionary of agronomic plants.
• Rohrer, J. R. 2011. Prunus (Rosaceae). In: FNA Editorial Committee, Flora of North America. 9: in press.
• Salesses, G. et al. 1988. Creation of plum rootstocks for peach and plum by interspecific hybridization. Acta Hort. 224:339–344. [this study commented on the promising use of Prunus spinosa as a graft stock progenitor for peach].
• Steyermark, J. A. 1977. Flora of Missouri. [introduced].
• Tutin, T. G. et al., eds. 1964–1980. Flora europaea.
• Uphof, J. C. T. 1968. Dictionary of economic plants, ed. 2.
• Walters, S. M. et al., eds. 1986–. European garden flora.
• Wu Zheng-yi & P. H. Raven et al., eds. 1994–. Flora of China (English edition).

More:

Search AGRICOLA article citation database for citations referencing Prunus spinosa.

Search NCBI's Entrez search engine for PubMed citations referencing Prunus spinosa.

Search Biodiversity Heritage Library for historical publications referencing Prunus spinosa.

Check other web resources for Prunus spinosa L.:

• Flora Europaea: Database of European Plants (ESFEDS)
• Flora of North America: Collaborative Floristic Effort of North American Botanists
• Flora of China: Online version from Harvard University
• Mansfeld: Mansfeld's World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops
• ICRA: International Cultivar Registration Authority (on-line resource). for Prunus spinosa cultivars
• ePIC: Electronic Plant Information Centre of Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
• AGRICOLA: Article Citation Database or NAL Catalog of USDA's National Agricultural Library
• Entrez: NCBI's search engine for PubMed citations, GenBank sequences, etc.

Images:

• Fruit: U.S. National Seed Herbarium image

More:

• Check PlantSystematics.org for additional images
• Images Note: Be advised that their identity may be inaccurate. Proper identification of a plant may require specialized taxonomic knowledge or comparison with properly documented herbarium material.

Abbreviations & symbols in GRIN Taxonomy

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