Photo: Mason Brock, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Carolina Buckthorn

Scientific name: Frangula caroliniana

Also called Indian cherry, yellow buckthorn, Rhamnus caroliniana.

Glossy leaves, red-to-black berries and yellow fall color on a native buckthorn that is nothing like the invasive ones.

Be first when Carolina buckthorn is priced

Saplings ship bare-root or in a pot, usually 12 to 18 inches tall, in the dormant season, and their height and age are stated here with the price, once available.

We grow it as saplings and seed. One email when it is listed with prices, and nothing else. Or ask, and we reply with what is ready now. Live plants ship February to May and October to November.

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Wildlife valueRareFall colorTolerates shadeDrought tolerant

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 10–20 ft
USDA zones: 5–9
Growth rate: Medium
Flowers: May to June
Fruit: Berries, September to October
First crop: 5 to 7 years
Mature spread: 15 ft
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: Rocky ground, the forest understory and dry uplands
Native range: 19 states, north and west to Nebraska and south to Florida
List all 19
Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia
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Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Carolina buckthorn is a thornless, well-behaved large shrub of limestone woods and stream banks in the Southeast and lower Midwest. The showy fruit turns red then black and feeds birds in autumn; the leaves stay green and glossy late into the season. Not to be confused with European or glossy buckthorn, which are invasive. A natural choice for a thornless bird hedge along a wooded property line.

Size, growth and what to expect

A shrub of limestone slopes, glades and stream banks, Carolina buckthorn grows wild from southwestern Virginia west to Ohio, southern Illinois and Nebraska, and south to Florida, Texas and northeastern Mexico. It grows at a medium pace, roughly a foot and a half a year in its youth on an average site, the rate our growth estimator assumes for a medium shrub. It makes a large shrub or small tree 10 to 20 feet tall and about as wide, and it can reach 30 feet.

Small creamy-green flowers open in May and June. The fruit is a berry about a third of an inch across. It turns bright red in late summer and ripens black in September and October, when birds strip it. Deer browse the leaves and bark. Despite the name it has no thorns, and the species name records its discovery in South Carolina. It grows more drought tolerant as it ages.

How to grow Carolina Buckthorn

Carolina buckthorn grows in full sun, part shade or shade, on average to dry soil, and it is at home over limestone. In shade it is more tree than shrub. At full size allow 8 to 10 feet from a walk or a wall.

Plant while dormant. Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Open a hole twice as wide as the roots and no deeper, keep the root collar at grade, and backfill with what you took out. Mulch a ring, held off the stem. Clean the pulp from the seed, sow it outdoors in fall in a screened bed, and let winter do the chilling. Seed kept until spring needs 30 to 60 days damp in the refrigerator first. Sow it barely covered.

Water through the first summer when the weather turns dry. Deer browse it hard in some areas, so cage a young plant until it tops six feet, and screen the base against rabbits. Take out crossing branches in late winter for a clean trunk.

This is not the invasive buckthorn: it is thornless despite the name and stays where you put it. One plant will fruit on its own. Birds strip the berries as they blacken, and the fruit is not for eating.

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

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