Frangula Explained

Frangula is a genus of about 35 species of flowering shrubs or small trees, commonly known as alder buckthorn in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae.^[1] The common name buckthorn is also used to describe species of the genus Rhamnus in the same family and also sea-buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides in the Elaeagnaceae.

Description

Frangula is a genus of deciduous shrubs with alternate, simple leaves with stipules, buds without bud scales, branches without spines and flowers with five petals and undivided styles. The fruits are 2 to 4-seeded berries.^[2]

Selected species include:

• Frangula alnus – alder buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, breaking buckthorn, black dogwood
• Frangula azorica
• Frangula betulifolia – birchleaf buckthorn
• Frangula californica – California buckthorn, coffeeberry
• Frangula caroliniana – Carolina buckthorn, Indian cherry (synonym Rhamnus caroliniana)
• Frangula purshiana – cascara buckthorn (synonym Rhamnus purshiana)
• Frangula rubra – red buckthorn

The European species, alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus) was of major military importance in the 15th to 19th centuries, as its wood provided the best quality charcoal for gunpowder manufacture.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Plant List: Frangula . 2013 . Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew .
2. Book: Stace, C. A.. Stace, C. A.. 2010. New Flora of the British Isles. Third. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, U.K.. 88. 9780521707725.
3. Book: Francis Montagu Smith. A handbook of the manufacture and proof of gunpowder, as carried on at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey. 2 April 2013. 1871. H.M. Stationery Office. 26–.