# What are these??



## chris30523

[







fuzzy and spreading found on dry rocky slope.







shiny and spiney about 10 feet tall white flowers and wierd fruits in the fall


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## Mc's Farm

Not sure about what's in the 1st pic, but the second pic looks like a lemon tree. Need a better pic to really ID it. There is something else that is "wild" that has thorns like this, but I never seen any flowers or fruit. Both the wild thing and the lemon tree has some serious thorns...they will go right thru the sole of the shoe.


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## chris30523

Not warm enough here for citrus.We are in zone 7 or upper 8.


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## Wildcrofthollow

Hi chris,

The first one is called "golden star". _Chrysogonum virginianum_

The second _I think_is trifoliate orange. _Poncirus trifoliata_. I have only encountered this one in the wild once before. it is a citrus but the fruits are bitter. I don't think it is native but really don't know for sure.

hope this helps,


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## Guest

I'm pretty sure that second one is a trifoliate orange. It is a citrus species and it is winter hardy all the way up into zone 5 I believe. Great rootstock for edible citrus, but it doesn't make a fruit that anyone would consider palatable.

.....Alan.


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## chris30523

Dont't really think it is wild.There was an old home place here at one time that burned.These are growing where they pushed up what was left of the house.Also nandina,daffodils,apple trees,all growing in the same tangled thorny mess.







here is a picture to show how big the thorns are.OOPS too large..(pay no attention to the dirt under the fingernail)Any use for these two plants?They usually didn't plant stuff that had no use and the thorny plant is not plesant to look at??


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## MELOC

it may be what remains of a grafted tree if it is what the folks here say it is. it is common for root stock to survive when the grafted plant dies. perhaps it was a grafted citrus that froze leaving the rootstock to survive.


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## Wildcrofthollow

I think Meloc has it right.
The golden star is a wild plant, one that likes to be in part shade. It was probably there before the old homesite, and it is still there. The trifoliate orange was, most likely, the rootstock that some other plant was grafted onto. The graft didn't survive but the rootstock did. This happens fairly frequently. With the big dirty fingernail picture )), i am pretty convinced that it is trifoliate orange.


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## lmnde

What did the fruit look like? I am thinking possible osage orange trees?


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## chris30523

It was a small lumpy green thing.I didn't break one open though.The bloom looks and smells like a small orange blossom so a hardy type of citrus makes sense.People don't plant citrus around here we are on the border of NC I don;t know if there was something the old timers used to plant though.Yep looked up some pictures and it is a trifoliate orange although I never saw the fruits turn yellow.


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## Nobody

It is a trifoliate orange. We have those here in east Texas. Very bitter. The Coushatta indians had a special name for them here, but for the life of me I can't recall the name they used.


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## Dirtslinger

I have a Poncirus in Z5, so far no fruit but it survives. Very hardy citrus. You could use it for experimental grafting, I believe some citrus may even ripen in your zone with that rootstalk. Or, I read you can make marmalade out of the fruit, though they are supposed to be full of seeds. Just the rinds are good.


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## chris30523

It is in full bloom right now.Very pretty and sickly sweet smell.I don't know what I will do with them .They are in the pasture.If any one is interested in seeds or starts let me know I bet I can get some for you.Now where did I put my suit of armor


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## okiemom

I think the second pic. is what they have on Okla. St. Un. campus. The thorns make some of the locus trees look tame.  

They make it into a hedge. It really is pretty. Holds the box shape really well. The thorns are horrid and it is pretty funny to see all the drunks/ goofballs falling into them on the weekend. 

They are great to plant under a daughters window. :viking: I have not seen them in any store. Where would you get this?


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