Ruscus aculeatus L.

An evergreen, well-armed shrub, spreading and renewing itself by means of sucker growths springing from the base, 11⁄2 to 3 ft high, the crowded erect stems having many rigid branches near the top; stems grooved. Cladodes ovate, stalkless, 3⁄4 to 11⁄2 in. long, 1⁄4 to 3⁄4 in. wide; slightly glossy on both sides, tapering at the apex to a slender, stiff spine. Flowers 1⁄4 in. across, dull white, borne singly or in pairs (apparently stalkless) in the centre of the cladode, but really produced in the leaf-axil, the stalk being united to the midrib of the cladode. The flower-bud forms early in the year, and opens in spring. Fruit a globose or oblong, bright red berry, 1⁄3 to 5⁄8 in. in diameter, borne, like the flower of course, in the centre of the cladode.

Native of Europe, N. Africa and the Near East; widespread in S. England, becoming rarer northward, absent from N. England and Scotland. The butcher’s broom is remarkable in being the only shrubby plant of the monocotyledonous type native of the British Isles. It is not, ordinarily, a showy plant, but is always interesting for the curious position of its flowers and fruit. When laden with the latter it is very ornamental indeed; but the plants are mostly unisexual, and the fruits are not commonly seen in gardens, because one of the sexes, but more especially the female, is wanting. There is a hermaphrodite form in commerce, however. It is especially useful for planting in dense shade where very few evergreens will thrive. It is said to have obtained its common name through being used in the shape of brooms by butchers to clean their blocks. In S. Italy I have seen it used as a garden besom, as birch and ling are used in this country. ‘The bunches of this plant, with the ripe fruit upon them, are frequently cut, and put into basons of sand, mixing them with the stalks of ripe seeds of male Piony, and those of the wild Iris or Gladwyn, which together make a pretty appearance in rooms …’ (Miller’s Dictionary (1768)).