Blooming blackthorn with a blow

Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) is often found in hedgerows is in blossom. Curiously blackthorn flowers before its leaves grow, whereas hawthorn flowers after the leaves shoot. Blackthorn is dual male and female gender, known as 'Hermaphrodite' after the mythological Greek God. In Eire the tough blackened knobbly boughs are fashioned into fearsome shillelagh sticks ~ a legendary defensive weapon of the emerald isle. Chris