Prunus spinosa man is found in the famous case of a 5,300-year-old human mummy discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps along the Austrian-Italian border (nick-named Ötzi): among the stomach contents were sloes. A "sloe-thorn worm" used as fishing bait is mentioned in the 15th-century work, "The Treatyse of Fishing with an Angle", by Juliana Berners. The flowering of the blackthorn may have been associated with the ancient Celtic celebration of Imbolc. Prunus spinosa Prunus spinosa, called blackthorn or sloe, is a species of flowering plant in the rose family Rosaceae. It is native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest
Prunus darvasica × "P. cerasifera"). Prunus darvasica Prunus darvasica, the Darvaz plum, is rare plant endemic to Tajikistan. It is found in the Tajik portion of the Pamir Mountains, the Darvoz Range. There, the plants grow as shrubs 1.5-2.5m tall. The fruit are small (2cm) but otherwise typical plums, nearly black, with a blue waxy coat. The pit is brown. The fruit is edible and can be made into jam or compote. It is suspected that "P. darvasica" is of hybrid origin, as it is a tetraploid with 48 (or 32, depending on the source) chromosomes, possibly the result of "P. domestica"