Prunus spinosa. blackthorn , a spiny shrub which is a species of Prunus. It is called blackthorn. It is common in woods, hedges, and uncultivated sites. It grows to six or eight feet and has a black bark. The white flowers appear earlier than those of other plums. The fruit, which is called sloe, is round, small, covered with a bluish bloom, and so sour and styptic that it can scarcely be eaten raw. This common shrub, which grows rapidly, propagates to excess, and thrives in the most unfavourable soil, would be most suitable for forming enclosing hedges were it not for one great defect: it has creeping stems which gradually invade neighbouring land. It is consequently dreaded and, where possible, destroyed. At most it is used to form dry hedges, where it is more long-lived than whitethorn. Pharmacy derives some use from this vile shrub: sloe juice, when expressed and thickened to the consistency of an essence, is known as ‘acacia nostras’, which is sometimes substituted for real gum arabic. [1] Green sloes are distilled in a bain-marie to make a strong vinegar or are pounded in a mortar to make an effective restorative for turned wine. They can also be pickled in brine and eaten like olives. A drink which is said to be pleasant may be made by drying ripe sloes in the oven and fermenting them. [2] Hence even those products of Nature which appear to be the most abject may have some utility.

Notes

1. ‘Acacia nostras’ is native gum arabic.

2. Sloes are used to make liqueurs, including sloe gin. See D. J. Mabberley, The Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of the Vascular Plants (Cambridge, 1997), 588.