Photo: Krzysztof Ziarnek, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Buckthorn Bully

Sideroxylon lycioides

Also called buckthorn bumelia, gopherwood buckthorn, Bumelia lycioides.

A thorny small tree of stream banks and limestone bluffs, with clusters of tiny white flowers in summer and black fruit that birds and squirrels eat.

Wildlife valueEdibleTolerates wet soil

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–45 ft
USDA zones: 7–9
Growth rate: Fast
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks and rich moist slopes
Native range: 18 states, north to Illinois, south to Florida and west to Texas
List all 18
Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia
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Buckthorn bully is a thorny small tree of the sapodilla family and a cousin of our gum bumelia. Its twigs often carry an inch-long thorn at the leaf scars and bleed a milky sap when broken. It grows from Delaware and Virginia west to southern Illinois and Missouri, and south to Florida and Texas. Its black fruit is edible, though birds and squirrels usually get it first. Florida and Indiana, at the edges of its range, list it as endangered. Give it a moist, sunny corner of a naturalized area, away from paths.

Size, growth and what to expect

Buckthorn bully grows fast, nearly three feet a year in its youth in our growth estimator. It is a shrub or small tree, usually under 20 feet, though old trees can reach about 45. It keeps its leaves in mild winters and drops them farther north. Its smooth young bark turns scaly and peels to show red beneath.

Clusters of tiny white flowers open from June to August. The fruit ripens in fall from red to purplish black, an oval berry about half an inch long, edible and sometimes made into jelly. Birds and squirrels usually eat it first, and deer browse the twigs.

It grows in bottomland and floodplain forests, along streams and ponds, at the edges of swamps, and on limestone slopes, bluffs and glades. NatureServe ranks it secure overall but critically imperiled in Delaware and Indiana, where it reaches the edges of its range.

How to grow Buckthorn Bully

Buckthorn bully grows in full sun or part shade, in a moist, well-drained sandy loam, and it takes ground that is wet for a time. Neutral to slightly alkaline soil suits it, as over limestone. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 20 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. Sow it as gum bumelia is sown. Clean the seed from fruit picked as soon as it turns purplish black, and chill it damp in the refrigerator for 60 days. Sow it in spring under a light cover of soil.

Water weekly through the first summer, then only in long droughts. Deer browse the twigs, so cage young trees for their first few years. Wear gloves when you prune, since many twigs carry thorns.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, and most buckthorns can pollinate themselves, so a single tree can set fruit. The larvae of the bumelia borer, a longhorn beetle, can tunnel into the base of buckthorn trunks. It has no other significant pests or diseases.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (13)