The fruits of the blackthorn are round and dark blue Blackthorn varieties Cultivated sloe berries grow even larger, with a diameter of up to two centimetres. They are black-purple to black-blue, and, when wild, grow up to one centimetre wide. Sloe berries appear in late autumn and look like very small, round plums. Therefore, if you see a bare shrub with white flowers, you know it is a sloe! Sloe berries: how to identify the fruits of the blackthorn Hawthorn flowers, meanwhile, only appear after the shrub has foliage. Tip: How can you tell blackthorn and hawthorn apart? Blackthorn blossoms before its leaves appear. From the end of March to April, blackthorn produces many small, snow-white flowers. Its lush white blossoms are not only beautiful, but provide valuable nutrition to bees and insects. Slow berry bushes are one of the first shrubs to flower in spring. Sloes bloom from March to April Sloe blossom: when does blackthorn flower? In autumn, these leaves turn yellow and slightly red. Blackthorn shoots are covered with lots of prickly thorns, and its leaves are three to four centimetres long, elliptical in shape and matt dark green. It can grow to a height of three to five metres when fully grown and has very dark, almost black bark that cracks with age. The deciduous blackthorn grows as a shrub or bushy tree with several trunks. In the wild, it is often found along roadsides, in vineyards, along forest edges, wild hedges or hillsides. Sloe berry bushes can be found at altitudes of up to 1500 metres and is present in almost all continents. Blackthorn is native throughout Europe and the Middle East, and has even found its way to the Caucasus mountains and North Africa.

Sloes belong to the genus Prunus and are members of the rose family (Rosaceae). Prunus spinosa is more commonly known as blackthorn or sloe. Sloe berries: how to identify the fruits of the blackthorn.Sloe blossom: when does blackthorn flower?.

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