Blackthorn blossom without a blackthorn winter?

 The first blackthorn aka sloe Prunus spinosa flowers opened in a hedge alongside one of my favourite walks in Weardale last week. This often signals the start of a 'blackthorn winter', a period of intensely cold north-easterly winds, but this year it looks like we might be lucky - the forecast for the next couple of weeks is for milder weather, warm enough for pollinators to be active. Last spring's blackthorn winter led to pollination failure and a very poor crop of sloes locally, and almost complete crop failure for the damson tree in my garden.

The blackthorn in this length of hedgerow is brutally cut back every winter but this is a tree that produces clusters of flower buds on the old wood that survives, that's almost completely coated in lichens. Blackthorn blossom in a carpet of grey and yellow encrusting lichens is a particularly attractive combination.

Sloe gin

Frost and snow lately has finally softened the sloes on blackthorns in Teesdale and Weardale and there's a real temptation to taste a ripe one - a temptation to be resisted. I did once - and only once - and it was so breathtakingly sour that I'll never do it again. There's only one way to consume these - as sloe gin, marinaded in gin and sugar for a few months. 

A Tree-spotter's guide to Buds: part 3

Still bearing the fruit of last spring's blossom, this blackthorn Prunus spinosa twig with its tight little clusters of buds will be clothed in a froth of white flowers in a little over three months from now. Blackthorn flower buds are carried on short woody spurs.

The attractive buds of bird cherry Prunus padus - glossy, purple-brown and pointed. A hedgerow tree that's commonest in the northern half of Britain.

Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna with short, pointed buds and twigs that often end in the thorns that make this such an effective, stock-proof hedge.

Small greenish buds of silver birch Betula pendula, on long, slender twigs that contribute to the tree's graceful silhouette in winter

Field maple Acer campestre. The short space between the bud scale scars that girdle this twig show that it made little growth over the last two years.

The twin buds at the end of this field maple Acer campestre twig show that last year it would have carried a single flower bud that developed into a bunch of winged seeds at the end of the twig, which have since been dispersed. A bud developed on each side the the bunch of seeds, so next year this twig will branch into two.

Winter buds of oak Quercus sp. , with their small, overlapping bud scales. The bottom right bud seems to have been galled by a gall wasp, which I think may be Cynips divisa - anyone know what it is for certain? I don't think it's easy to tell from buds alone whether the tree is common oak Q. pedunculatus or sessile oak Q. petraea but a search on the ground below will sort them out: if the acorn cups have long stalks, it's the former; if the acorn cups have little or no stalk, then it's the latter.

For more posts on tree ID click here