The flora of PĂ©rigord in South-West France is abundant and diverse. In this blog you can find, in pictures, brief encounters with several hundreds of wild flowers and plants as they grow here in French Perigord. Following the seasons other species are added. An index of scientific and English names you find below on the right.

Corine Oosterlee is a botanist and photographer and she offers guided Botanical Walks and other activities around plants and vegetation in nature in Perigord. Do you want to know more? On www.baladebotanique.fr you can find more information. For Corine's photography see www.corineoosterlee.com. Both websites also in English.

Enjoy!




March 11, 2014

Blackthorn



The Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) also has a mass of white blossom. Now the first buds open, well before the leaves.





The flowers of the Blackthorn are smaller as those of the Plum. They sit an nearly black branches. In autumn this bush produces small blue fruits.





Generally it is a bush of less than 1.50 m high. The Blackthorn is invasive, new branches develop from the spreading roots, and it can overrun a large surface. End of March edges of woods, hedges ant left-over pieces of land can be covered in white blossom like snow. The Blackthorn has - not surprising - big black thorns, and where they grow in dense stands they are literally inpenetrable.