Americanized European Buckthorn Gardens: Fall Barriers, Colors, Covers

Summary: Americanized European buckthorn gardens with glossy buckthorn and latherleaf decorate ground covers and natural barriers with gorgeous fall colors.

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), with props; Ehner, village of Saeul, Redange canton, Diekrich District, west central Luxembourg: Claude Meisch (Cayambe), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized European buckthorn gardens advance ecosystem well-being as ground covers for compacted, depleted, distressed, disturbed soils even though their foliage and fruits affect human health and allelopathically arrest other species' life cycles.

Impacts upon crop diversity, human health and species diversity bring down weed designations on European buckthorn and on glossy buckthorn of Asia, Europe and North Africa. The Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont state governments in the United States and the Manitoba provincial government in Canada consider European and glossy buckthorns weeds. Additional legislation in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario and in the states of Iowa and Minnesota delivers sanctions against European buckthorn, but not glossy buckthorn.

Other weedlike woody members in the Rhamnaceae family of buckthorn shrubs, trees and vines such as latherleaf, also called Asian nakedwood, endure no such sanctions yet.

The shrub or small tree native to Europe fits heart-, kidney- or wedge-shaped embryonic leaves, called cotyledons, onto the seedling stages in Americanized European buckthorn gardens.

European buckthorn, described by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707- Jan. 10, 1778) and named Rhamnus cathartica (purgative thornbush), grows to mature 19.69-foot (6-meter) heights. Its trunk, 9.84 inches (25 centimeters) across, has light gray, somewhat scaly outer bark, yellow inner bark and orange or pink innermost non-living support called heartwood. Elliptical to oblong, 1.18- to 2.36-inch- (3- to 6-centimeter-) long foliage, with dark green upper-sides and yellow-green undersides, is positioned in opposite arrangements around thorn-tipped branches.

Foliar bases and tips respectively join paired, toothed, 0.12- to 0.19-inch- (3- to 5-millimeter-) long membranes called stipules and two to four pairs of curved veins.

cutting board of Norway maple (Acer platanoides) with inset of dense, hard European buckthorn's orange heartwood: MartinFields, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Americanized European buckthorn gardens keep foliar colors lush green late into fall and leaf margins distinct with six to eight teeth per 0.39 inch (1 centimeter).

The axil unions of leaves and stems lavish European buckthorn with clustered, fragrant, green-yellow inflorescences, called cymes, that let the oldest flowers lounge around the tips. April- to June-blooming groups of two to seven and of two to 15 respectively make flowers of 0.12- to 0.19-inch- (3- to 5-millimeter-) wide male or female. Female flowers with one pistil and male flowers with four stamens each need four lance-shaped, 0.04- to 0.06-inch- (1- to 1.5-millimeter-) long petals and four sepals.

European buckthorn offers four-seeded, juicy, purple-black berries, each 0.19 to 0.35 inches (5 to 9 millimeters) across, and operating allelopathically with foliage, five years after germination.

European buckthorn, host for leaf and crown rust of oatfields, presents human ingestors of 20 berries with abdominal pains, kidney damage, muscular convulsions and vomiting.

Oval, green-gray to black, 0.16- to 0.19-inch- (4- to 5-millimeter-) long seeds quitting dormancy, with disintegrated coats and pointed tips, after cold weather quickens their germination. European buckthorn, also called Carolina buckthorn, common buckthorn, Christ's-thorn, French berries, Hart's thorn, purging buckthorn, rainberry thorn, rhineberry thorn and waythorn, retains two- to three-year viabilities. Adaptability to light-, moisture- and nutrient-poor and rich soils situates fast seed germination, quick seedling growth, riotous seed production and stubborn seed viability within maximum expectancies.

Resplendently fall-colored European buckthorn, glossy buckthorn and latherleaf ground covers and natural barriers in Americanized European buckthorn gardens sometimes tax health, threaten turf and trouble oats.

European buckthorn's purple-black berries and dark green leaves, with yellow green undersides; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana, Sept. 24, 2012: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

European buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), with props; Ehner, village of Saeul, Redange canton, Diekrich District, west central Luxembourg: Claude Meisch (Cayambe), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhamnus_cathartica_Ehner_Luxembourg_03.jpg

cutting board of Norway maple (Acer platanoides) with inset of dense, hard European buckthorn heartwood: MartinFields, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckthorn_cutting_board.JPG

European buckthorn's purple-black berries and dark green leaves, with yellow green undersides; Bozeman, Gallatin County, southwestern Montana, Sept. 24, 2012: Matt Lavin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/plant_diversity/8023755779/i

For further information:

Dickinson, Richard; and Royer, France. 2014. Weeds of North America. Chicago IL; London, England: The University of Chicago Press.

Linnaeus, Carl. 1753. "1. Rhamnus catharticus." Species Plantarum, vol. I: 193. Holmiae [Stockholm, Sweden]: Laurentii Salvii [Laurentius Salvius].
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/358212

"Rhamnus cathartica L." Tropicos® > Name Search.
Available @ http://www.tropicos.org/Name/27500016

Weakley, Alan S.; Ludwig, J. Christopher; and Townsend, John F. 2012. Flora of Virginia. Edited by Bland Crowder. Fort Worth TX: BRIT (Botanical Research Institute of Texas) Press.