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Buckthorn - Rhamnus cathartica
Shrub or small tree to 6 metres. Old branches ending in a spine tip. Leaves oval, opposite or clustered, long stalked and toothed. Flowers greenish 3 to 4 mm in dense clusters arising from the older branches or solitary. The male and female flowers on separate plants. Berries black when ripe.
Woodland scrub and hedgerows.
May and June.
Deciduous.
Fairly frequent in England but much less so in Scotland and Wales.
Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 233 of the 617 tetrads.
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
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MAP KEY:
Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015
UK Map
Species profile
- Common names
- Buckthorn
- Species group:
- Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Rosales
- Family:
- Rhamnaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 81
- First record:
- 07/06/2006 (Calow, Graham)
- Last record:
- 10/08/2023 (Bell, Melinda)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
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Jumping Plant Louse
The Jumping Plant Louse, Trichochermes walkeri, causes the leaf margin to curl and a gall to be formed on the leaves of Buckthorn. The gall is more likely to be seen than the adult plant louse.