Blackthorn

I can t be certain, but I suspect this is hawthorn rather than blackthorn, given the light colour of the bark. It s certainly hawthorn that is known as may .

Sorry, BoP, but I beg to differ! Blackthorn has white blossoms and produces sloes as its fruit. If you have ever sucked one, you will know that it is black and dries out your mouth completely and perhaps that is why they make sloe gin out of it. Hawthorn, however, has pinky-white blossoms and produces red berries that you can eat and they taste a bit gritty but are reasonably palatable and attract birds in autumn. In Cornish, blackthorn = spernenn dhu and hawthorn = spernenn wynn but, and I m not sure why, the translation as you may know is black thorn and white thorn . Of couse, to fool us, blackthorn has a white blossom. maybe that is why you are thinking I m wrong. And no, it is blackthorn that is known as may . As you know, may shows itself on every hedgerow long before May is out, so the old weather adage, ne er cast a clout til may is out refers to the blackthorn not to the month. If you don t agree, try googling may, blackthorn . You will get the same blossom as mine depicted here if you look for images.

Sloe Gin is ansom, as is the cassis that I made from Sloes and Raspberries.

I drink mine kwick! Incidentally, what is pink gin made from, do you know? Is this what you mean?

Touch of angostura bitters, that is all it is, in the gin. Much rather have a GandT with lime on ice.

Okay. Thanks.

I know perfectly well what sloes are, sir, but nonetheless I shall have to ask you to take a look at the website english-country-garden, trees, hawthorn (you ll see what I mean when you get there!)

Ah! Those dots certainly do prove your point! read# Can t do links like that BoP!
From what I can see consulting such an oracle as Wikipedia that Hawthorn is may, and Blackthorn produces sloes.
Also: Blackthorn is a deciduous, much branched shrub, up to 4 m high. It is often found in lowland woodland margins, scrub and hedgerows, on a wide range of soils. It is only absent from extremely acid soils.
The short branches which are at right angles to the stem lose their leaves and then persist as thorns.
The buds are tiny (

It wasn t a link, it was simply a typed URL!

Doesn t like those, see? (...) are we closer to identifying said bush??