Monday 14 March 2011

The Blackthorn mystery

Two of my budwatch posts seem to contradict each other: incipient blossom on the blackthorn on 7 March; and blackthorn buds just out on 5 February.

Aha! I thought as I wandered past the southwestern hedgerows. The blossoming blackthorn must be functionally male, and the budding blackthorn functionally female. And I continued to ruminate over the trend for planting male trees in urban areas because female trees, or more specifically their fruits, can make a mess. The problem is, that all that extra blossom and pollen causes more hayfever and asthma. On the other hand, cities are better than rural areas nowadays as pollen sources for bees.

But that was all a red herring as blackthorn is hermaphroditic. In which case perhaps I've confused it with cherry plum (frequently done)... but cherry plum is an ornamental, and I'd have thought not very likely to be found in our hedgerows. Or perhaps I've confused blackthorn and hawthorn, which is more likely, but I thought hawthorn had different spines.

So who knows? We'll have to wait for the leaves and the blossom and the fruit, and see what we shall see.

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