How does buckthorn care for us?

Sit with Buckthorn who is rarely one and almost always many.  They prefer to live with their kind, in dense understory.  They make many small, round fruits that ripen from green to purplish black.  Each tiny berry contains three to four seeds with very high germination rates and can survive in the soil for up to six years giving them lots of time and opportunity to choose when to emerge.  Birds, chipmunks, voles and other small mammals love these fruits. 

Their leaves bud a bit earlier than most native plants and hold on a bit longer as well, giving them more time for photosynthesis to produce carbohydrates that they can story in their roots to help survive tough winters.  Tolerant of shade and full sun, of moisture and drought, and rapid growers, they are able to adapt to almost any living condition, amongst fence lines, woodland edges, street sides, hedgerows, and in pastures—they can be found almost everywhere. 

Called an invasive by almost everyone, we have lost our relationship with Buckthorn. Brought from Europe by immigrants in the 1800s, Buckthorn was prized as an ornamental and planted in hedgerows as a windbreak. Their berries can be made into a beautiful yellow dye or green paint, known to artists as Sap Green for centuries. In other parts of the world Buckthorn is loved for their role in the ecosystem, but here in the United States, their connection to humans and the ecosystem needs to be brought back into balance.  Buckthorn is open to and generating unknown entanglements, temporalities and stories as we speak.  How can we learn from them?  Can we begin with noticing?