Common buckthorn
Rhamnus cathartica L.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 7.3 m
- wide
- 5.3 m
Rhamnaceae
Also called European buckthorn, European waythorn, Hart's thorn, Purging Buckthorn, Purging buckthorn
Formerly Cervispina cathartica
When it flowers
Not known yet in the tropics: too few flowering observations to read a season from.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Shrub or treeKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- TemperateKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Europe to Xinjiang and NW. Syria, NW. AfricaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 5.5 m to 9.1 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 4.6 m to 6.1 mRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- Yellow, greenRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -40 °C (USDA zone 3a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
In other languages (12)
- root
- RHACAT, Cambron
- Portuguese
- espinheiro-cerval
- French
- Nerprun purgatif, Nerprun cathartique, Nerprun officinal
- Czech
- řešetlák počistivý
- German
- Purgier-Kreuzdorn, Echter Kreuzdorn, Gemeiner Kreuzdorn
- Danish
- Vrietorn
- Dutch
- Wegedoorn, wegedoorn
- Russian
- Жостер слабительный, Крушина слабительная
- Norwegian Bokmål
- geitved, Geitved
- Finnish
- orapaatsama
- Croatian
- Krkavina, Pasjakovina, Obična krkavina
- Lithuanian
- Dygioji šunobelė
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Rhamnus cathartica (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.