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Author Topic: Is this Sloe?  (Read 24627 times)

KirinChris

  • Joined Apr 2022
  • Bishop Auckland, Durham
Is this Sloe?
« on: October 02, 2022, 06:52:22 pm »
We have just moved onto a small farm property and there are loads of plants I’m not sure about !


Glencairn

  • Joined Jun 2017
  • Dumfriesshire
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #1 on: October 02, 2022, 07:33:03 pm »
All the sloes that I have picked have had a matt finish to them, that's not to say that your's aren't, just keep on checking until you're satisfied.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #2 on: October 02, 2022, 07:35:22 pm »
No, looks like a rhododendron or laurel type thing.  Probably poisonous

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #3 on: October 02, 2022, 07:41:25 pm »
Screengrab from the Wiki page

Berries nearly as big as leaves, berries have a duskiness (but that's less pronounced earlier in the season), and the stems have massive, strong, and very nasty thorns.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Anke

  • Joined Dec 2009
  • St Boswells, Scottish Borders
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #4 on: October 03, 2022, 01:57:11 pm »
This does indeed look like Laurel or similar to me. VERY poisonous to any ruminant (leaves and berries), so if that was on my smallholding and I planned on keeping livestock nearby, it would be taken out very quickly.


Also (I am not 100% sure) but aren't sloes just blackthorn and that is not an evergreen plant? The one in your photo defintiely is.

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #5 on: October 03, 2022, 07:47:45 pm »
aren't sloes just blackthorn and that is not an evergreen plant?

Yes and yes
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Steph Hen

  • Joined Jul 2013
  • Angus Scotland.
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #6 on: October 03, 2022, 08:06:58 pm »
I dislike laurel, birds enjoy it but it can really take over. I’d remove the lot :-(

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #7 on: October 04, 2022, 11:44:19 am »
The 1st pic is definitely laurel and it is poisonous.  Since it gives me "hay-fever" in the Spring I'd personally be chopping it out without a doubt.

[The fruit in SiN's pic of blackthorn/sloe look quite large:  I'm wondering if it might actually be a bullace (or bullum in Cornwall - a type of wild plum)] 
« Last Edit: October 04, 2022, 11:47:23 am by arobwk »

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #8 on: October 04, 2022, 05:49:54 pm »
The fruit in SiN's pic of blackthorn/sloe look quite large:  I'm wondering if it might actually be a bullace (or bullum in Cornwall - a type of wild plum)


I think it's that blackthorn leaves are small, which makes the fruits look large.  The pic is the one on the Wiki page, unlikely to not be correct.
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2022, 05:54:01 pm »
This is the Wiki pic for bullace

Superficially similar but the leaves are so much bigger, and so are the fruits

Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

chrismahon

  • Joined Dec 2011
  • Gascony, France
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #10 on: October 04, 2022, 06:30:07 pm »
Absolutely not sloe. Sloe trees look like plum or damson and we have a lot around here, although very small because of the drought and soil condition. Anything with laurel type leaves is going to be very poisonous. The photo looks like Portuguese Laurel fruit and we have them as well. Whatever you do don't eat them!

arobwk

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Kernow: where 2nd-home owners rule !
Re: Is this Sloe?
« Reply #11 on: October 11, 2022, 09:00:39 pm »
The fruit in SiN's pic of blackthorn/sloe look quite large:  I'm wondering if it might actually be a bullace (or bullum in Cornwall - a type of wild plum)


I think it's that blackthorn leaves are small, which makes the fruits look large.  The pic is the one on the Wiki page, unlikely to not be correct.

I do expect that you are right SiN (re blackthorn versus ...), but I do have to say there are hybrids (blackthorn can pollinate even a Victoria plum as far as I'm aware and produce viable "seed" !) and there are also cultivated larger fruiting varieties of sloe (p. spinosa). 
Unfortunately, visual IDs are becoming ever more uncertain as "we" meddle with nature and while nature also meddles with itself helped, in particular, by us moving growing plants of various species around the world.   ;) :)

 

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