Frangula is a genus of about 56 species of floweringshrubs or small trees, commonly known as buckthorn, in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. The common name buckthorn is also used to describe species of the closely related genus Rhamnus in the same family, and also the superficially similar but unrelated sea-buckthorn, Hippophae rhamnoides in the Elaeagnaceae.
Frangula species are deciduous or evergreen shrubs or small trees (to 12metres tall in F. purshiana) with dark grey-brown to blackish bark; alternate, simple leaves with stipules, buds without bud scales, branches without spines; and flowers with five small petals (cf. usually four in Rhamnus) and undivided styles. The fruit is a two- to four-seeded berry; it is dispersed by birds.[1]:279[2]
Taxonomy
The species were formerly usually included within Rhamnus as a subgenus,[3] but have increasingly been treated as a distinct genus in their own right.[2][4][5][6]
The genus has a near-cosmopolitan distribution, occurring throughout most of Europe and the Americas, large parts of Asia, and the far northwest of Africa; it is absent from Africa south of the Sahara, the Indian Subcontinent, and Australasia.[4]
Uses
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.[8]
As with Rhamnus species, the berries are a powerful purgative.[9]
References
↑Stace, C. A. (2010). New Flora of the British Isles (Thirded.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p.88. ISBN9780521707725.
1234"Frangula". Plants of the World Online. 2006-08-05. Retrieved 2026-01-29.
↑Richardson, James E.; Fay, Michael F.; Cronk, Quentin C. B.; Bowman, Diane; Chase, Mark W. (2000). "A phylogenetic analysis of Rhamnaceae using rbcL and trnL‐F plastid DNA sequences". American Journal of Botany. 87 (9). Wiley: 1309–1324. doi:10.2307/2656724. ISSN0002-9122.
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