Buckthorn
Glossy & Common Buckthorn
A vigorous colonizing understory shrub, Buckthorn spreads as fruit dispersed by birds. Like Bittersweet its tolerance for a wide range of growing conditions and dispersal via birds creates for a large impact on the landscape. Most commonly found on woodland edges or areas of disturbance.
Similar in appearance to native cherries, which upon closer inspection reveals a wider oval leaf and bark that is more spotted rather than lined by white accents.
Management
Buckthorn thankfully is fairly straight forward to manage. Depending on its size and the conditions of the site, mechanical uprooting is possible for small to medium sized shrubs. Where this is not advisable is in sensative areas such as slopes where the removal of roots would create other compounding problems.
Our common approach for mature specimens is to cut and paint the stumps with herbicide. The window for doing this throughout the season is fairly wide and is only not recomended during spring sap flows.
The biggest consideration to keep in mind when removing buckthorn is the new flush of seedling growth that will follow. This seed back is easy to get under control within 1-2 seasons and replanting can commence after at least one pass of management.
