Scientific Name
Other Names
Life Form
Synonyms
Family
Food - Fruit and seed is consumed raw or cooked. Medicine - The leaves and fruit are astringent, lenitive and stomachic. The fruit, particularly before it is fully ripe is considered to be more effective medicinally.
Southwest Europe, Mediterranean region
Hedges, banks and sandy places.
Its dark purple fruits are edible and are extremely popular with birds and other wildlife.
Medium to large-sized deciduous tree up to 25 m tall.
Straight stem up to 80 cm in diameter; crown spreading; bark bluish-grey, smooth or with horizzontal wrinkles when older; branchlets and twigs smooth and greenish-grey.
Leaves alternate, obliquely ovate to lanceolate, 7-13 cm long and 3-7 cm wide, base serrate or sometimes smooth, strongly 3-neved.
Flowers small, greenish, in axillary shoots on year-old twigs.
Fruits a drupe, ovoid or cylindrical, 6-12 mm long, yellow then purple or black, fleshy with one white seed.
Flowering: March – April
Fruiting: October – November