Frangula

Frangula
Frangula alnus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Frangula Mill.
Species
See text.

Frangula is a genus of about 35 accepted species of shrubs or small trees, commonly known as buckthorns in the flowering plant family Rhamnaceae.^[1]

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]:279

Selected species include:

• • Frangula betulifolia – birchleaf buckthorn
  • Frangula californica – California buckthorn, coffeeberry
  • Frangula caroliniana – Carolina buckthorn, Indian cherry (orth. var. R. carolinianus)
  • Frangula alnus – alder buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, breaking buckthorn, black dogwood
  • Frangula purshiana – cascara buckthorn (orth. var. R. purshianus)
  • 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]

References

1. "The Plant List: Frangula". Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2013.
2. Stace, C.A. (2010). New flora of the British isles (Third ed.). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. p. 88. ISBN 9780521707725.
3. Francis Montagu Smith (1871). A handbook of the manufacture and proof of gunpowder, as carried on at the Royal Gunpowder Factory, Waltham Abbey. H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 26–. Retrieved 2 April 2013.