In reply to Nick Maclaren ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :

In article ,
"Sue" writes:

Er, no. If there is merely a presence of astringency, then they
are almost certainly damsons - they are usually somewhat
astringent. Sloe cheese would be SO astringent that even I might
baulk at it.

OK. The plot, like the jam, thickens.

I have never noticed astringency in home-made damson jam. Must be
my taste buds.

Or your damsons. They vary, both with variety and ripeness.

And can anyone explain the thorns for me if they were in fact
damsons?

Sigh, yes. As I posted. Bullaces (wild damsons) sometimes have
thorns; it is quite likely that a few cultivated varieties do, too.
The same applies to apples.

The point with both is that the original species is usually a thorny
shrub; it has been bred to be a thornless tree, but older and less
highly bred varieties may have some characteristics of the original.
And seedlings may revert, or hybridise with the wild form (both of
which are still common over all of Europe).

Sloes are a different species, one of the two ancestors of the plum.
Crab apples are the same species as domestic apples.

I think I'm right in saying that one can easily tell the difference just by
biting into one. No?