Blackthorn is a 1-2 m tall shrub, with dense, spiny branches, found on the fringe of forests and on clearings. The tiny white flowers are produced shortly before the leaves; its fruit is a drupe, 10-12 mm in diameter with a bluish waxy bloom, which is worth harvesting after the first frosts. Small songbirds like to build their nests among the thorny branches and its fruits provide food for the small game in winter. Its old Hungarian popular name, which translates as "harrow tree", was given because its thorny branches used to be set in a wooden frame and dragged by workstock to harrow the land. Blackthorn harrow was still in use in the southern and central parts of the Hungarian Great Plains in the 19th century. Dried fruit, including wild fruits such as blackthorn, had a significant role in traditional rural nourishment, especially during the Lent period. In the 17th century it was so highly valued that according to Treasury records a tithe was levied on dried blackthorn. The significant use of blackthorn (kökény in Hungarian) is commemorated by old Hungarian village names, e.g. Kökény, Kökönyös, Kökénypatak, Kökényszeg. Nowadays blackthorn fruit is used for making jam or spirit (pálinka), and its flowers are mixed in herbal tea blends.

Traditional folk medicine mainly used its dried flowers. The infusion of the flowers was used for reducing blood pressure or as a mild laxative and diuretic.

In the beauty industry, the distillate of blackthorn flowers is used as a masking substance, the fruit juice as a roborant and skin conditioner. Due to its high mineral, vitamin and tannin content it firms, nourishes and regenerates the loose, tired, pale, oily or scaly seborrhoeal skin.

Flowers (Pruni spinosae flos):
- Flavonoids (kaempferol, quercetin glycosides, rutin)
- Procyanidins

Fruits (Pruni spinosae fructus):
- Organic acids: 2.8 %
- Sugars: 10%
- Protein: 0.8 %
- Iron: 0.33 mg/100g
- Other minerals
- Vitamins B1 and B2
- Vitamin C: 10-50 mg/100g
- Pigments
- Tannins