BUTCHER’S BROOM - Ruscus aculeatus L. (knee holly)
FAMILY: Asparagaceae. Perennial shrub (30 to 100 cm) Evergreen. Southern Europe and Mediterranean. Very common.
Very small greenish flowers. (from January to June). Globular berries about 1,5cm in diameter which become scarlet at the end of the year.
It likes dry and clear woods. It is not a very demanding plant, satisfied with poor grounds. It will not grow above 700 to 800 m altitude, the plant strongly fearing the frost. Present everywhere in the region.
It carries rigid and prickly cladodes which look like leaves. These organs come from the transformation of the branches of this small shrub. Butchers broom grows typically in all our undergrowth, hedges and borders.
It was known for practical uses. During the last war, it was sold rolled into a ball and used to scrub kitchen equipment used in the fireplace, the tips of the cladodes serving as a scraper. A rustic broom would be made by binding numerous stems head to tail and tying them in the middle. This “hedgehog” would be used to sweep. It is at the origin of the popular term "gringonner", synonym of "to sweep".
Protected species.
